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PART III. ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER, AND ABRAXOID GEMS.

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Page 1: ABRAXAS - C.W. KING

PART III.

ABRAXAS, ABRAXASTER, AND ABRAXOID GEMS.

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THE AGATHODÆMON WORSHIP

�THERE was a time� (say M. Matter with much force) �when it was from Judaism, especially from the Kabbla, and the system of Philo, that people sought to derive the great transition of the human mind from the ancient into the modern world: a revolu-tion in which so important a part is played by Gnosticism. So far as regards the explanation of the writings and the under-standing of the views given by Origen, Irenæus, and the other Fathers upon Gnosticism, the Jewish element still retains its ancient pre-eminence; but in the case of the tangible monuments come down to us from the Gnostics themselves, we ought hence-forth to be fully convinced that it is in the antiquities of Egypt we must look for our chief information: and if the ideas, terminology, and symbols of Judaism (that is, of the Kabbala) have lent certain doctrines to this system, yet it is Egyptian art that has furnished it with the greatest part of its symbols.�

This grand development of the old Wisdom of Egypt in a new phase is the most conspicuously exhibited in that very numerous class of engraved gems popularly and indiscriminately called Abraxas, Basilidan, and Gnostic stones, almost the sole production of the expiring Glyptic Art during the last two centuries of the Western Empire. But, contrary to the generally received notion concerning their nature, a careful study of their numerous subdivisions has fully convinced me that only a very small minority amidst their multitude present any traces of the influence of Christian doctrines; being for the most part the fruit of religious ideas which had flourished long before the first dawn of Christianity. An important portion, indeed, originating in the primitive Egyptian Mythology, have more connection with Magic and Medicine than with any religious object; and their employment as talismans establishes

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for them a higher antiquity than belongs to the real �Abraxas� gems, the date of whose origin is historically ascertained. The subject therefore will be more conveniently approached by considering in the first place the Agathodæmon, Chnuphis, or Chneph figures, often named �Dracontia,� and erroneously attributed to the Ophites and such-like semi-Christian sects, as their actual inventors.

It cannot however be denied, that although these last-named sectaries did not invent this emblem, yet that they generally adopted it for their distinguishing badge or, to use their technical word, �seal.� And this circumstance leads to a remark which, applying to all talismans alike, may aptly serve for preface to the following dissertation upon their sevoral classes. In the primitive Nature-worship of the Old World all religion consisted in the deification of the great visible Powors of the Universe. The Supreme Beings therefore belonged to the present World, consequently all the blessings they could confer were limited to this life. The means, of whatever kind, supposed to secure the goodwill of these Powers had for object tangible blessings alone�wealth, peace, long life, posterity�in faot all those rewards promised by Moses to the obedient Israelites. The engraved stones under consideration, being legacies of this older religion, were designed to secure temporal not spiritual benefits to the wearers. The latter were not even dreamed of by people holding the belief �mors ultima linea rerum est.� This fact explains why so many of the Gnostic gems are in reality no more than medicinal agents, and prescribed by physicians, Heathen and Christian alike, in their regular practice, from Nechepsos down to Alexander Trallianus. On the other hand the true Gnostics, whose sole profession was the knowledge of the other world, when they applied to the doctrines of the ancient religion the same method of interpre-tation that the Kabbalists had used for Moses and the Prophets (of which the Pistis-Sophia has left us such ingenious specimens), subjected all the productions of the former creed to the same Procrustean torture, and consequently availed themselves of these same symbols�nay, more, continued to manufacture them in their own sense of their import.

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The Agathodæmon��Good Genius��whose very name furnishes the reason why he should be chosen to figure on an ornament intended to defend its wearer from all disaase and mischance, is depicted as a huge serpent having the head of a lion, surrounded by a crown of seven or twelve rays�components conspicuously announcing that he is the embodiment of the idea of the Sun-god. This figure is usually accompanied, either on obverse or reverse, with its proper title, writtcn variously

, , and , accordingly as the engraver fancied he could best master that difficulty to the Greek mouth, the true sound of our letter B. This name Salmasius* considers as a rendering of the Coptic , gold; and hence expalins another title which sometimes takes its place,

, as �All-golden.� Jablonsky, however, derives the word more plausibly from , good, and , spirit, and thus makes �Agathodæmon� to be the literal translation of the name.�

This last had become in the third century the popular name for the hooded snake of Egypt. Lampridius has �Heliogabalus Ægyptios dracunculos Romæ habuit, quos illi Agathodæmonas vocant.� This kind was the Uræus, to be seen commonly on Egyptian monuments, where it is the badge of royalty placed upon the head of the sovereign. It is the hadji hasher of the modern Arabs, the cobra di capello of the Hindoos. I have met with a large sard engraved in the late Roman-Egyptian style, with two imperial busts regardant; reverse, the Chnuphis Serpent, with the legend in Roman letters , the sole instance known to me of such an amulet with a Latin inscription: but which goes far to confirm Jablonsky�s inter-pretation of the Coptic title. In classical Greek the original Chneph becomes Canopus; hence the Canopic vase often appears between two serpents for heraldic supporters. But in those lower times so fruitful for the Chnuphis talismans, no more Canopic vases appear on gems.

* He has treated of the subject at some length in that learned miscel-lany of his, the treatise �De Anno Climacterico.�

� The prototype appears to have been that ancient figure of Atmen

(the Sun) designated as �The Serepent� par excellence, and which was a winged serpent having human arms and feet. He is thus painted on mummy-cases as guardian of the inmate.

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The ancient Agathodæmon, in the form of his congener the Cobra, still haunts the precincts of the Hindoo temples, as of old the shrines of Isis; and issues from his hole at the sound of a fife to accept the oblation of milk from the attendant priest. As with the ancients, so with the Hindoos, he is the special keeper of concealed treasure; and when a zemindar deposits his hoard in the prepared hiding-place, he, to make assurance doubly sure, builds up a serpent therewith, to watch over the gold. Suetonius records that tiberius had a most appropriate pet in a �serpens draco�; but having found it one day devoured by a swarm of ants, the suspicious Cæsar took warning from its fate to beware the force of a multitude of feeble individuals; and consequently secured his person against all danger of popular out-break by shutting himself up in the inaccessible fastness of Capri.

But to return to the type of the Agathodæmon upon our gems. Over the seven rays of the lion�s crown, and correspond-ing to their points, stand often the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet, , testifying the Seven Heavens; a mystery whreof notice shall be taken in the fitting place. The reverse of such gems is invariably occupied by a special symbol resembling the letter , or , thrice repeated, or the convolu-tions of a spiral cord, and traversed by a straight rod through their middle; a symbol for which many and the most whimsical explanations have been proposed. Of these the most ingenious, but also the most fanciful, makes it represent the spinal marrow traversing the spine�certainly an apt device for a medicinal talisman. But whatever its primary meaning it was probably imported in its present shape from India (that true fountain-head of Gnostic iconography). It is to be seen in two varieties, upon series 16 and 17 in Plate VII. of E. Thomas� admirable Essay on the Primitive Coinage of India, amongst the punch-marks.

THE CHNUPHIS SERPENT. A Limoges enamelled plaque of the twelfth century (in the

collection of Mr. Octavius Morgan) represents on its one half �Moyses� lifting up the Brazen Serpent to the �Filii Israel.� On the other half, �similis Aaron� is seen inscribing with a

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reed pen the mystic Tau Cross upon the foreheads of the elect. The first of these tableaux offers the most extraordinary feature in its representation of the serpent, depicted here with lion�s head and mane: the veritable Agathodæmon Chnuphis of our Alexandrian talismans. The preservation of this form to so late a period fills one with surprisse: it indicates a traditionary belief that the symbol was the giver of life and health. The belief must have come down from the times when the Egyptian talisman was commonly worn, in the way Galen mentions, as a protection to the chest. The Brazen Serpent of Moses and the Plasma Agathodæmon of King Nechepsos had in all probability one and the same origin, giving currency to those little ingots which formed the sole money of the Hindoos before the esta-blishment of the Macedonians in Bactria. But the most probable solution of the question is that the symbol stealthily represents the serpent-entwined club of Aesculapius (itself so hard to account for), or the wand similarly encircled, which was the badge of the Egyptian priesthood. And what renders this conjecture of mine almost a certainty is an as of the gens Acilia, bearing for obverse the head of Aesculapius, for reverse a wand (not the usual club) placed vertically and encircled by his serpent in three convolutions. This type, if slightly defaced by wear, would become identical in appearance with the Chnuphis symbol. The spiral frequently takes the form of the letters dis-connected, traversed by a straight line. The curative virtue ascribed to the sigil, again, tends to indicate its derivation from the proper badge of the god of the healing art. For the eminent physician Marcellus Empiricus (who flourished at Bordeaux in Theodosius� reign) promises wonderful effects in the cure of pleurisy from the wearing of this very figure engraved upon a cerulean Scythian jasper. Whether this promise be true or not, marvellous has been the vitality of the symbol itself; for re-duced to a double upon a bar, it became a favourite device in the times of chivalry, being taken as the rebus upon the word Fermesse * (SS fermés) and the emblem of constancy. Hence comes it that this ancient Egyptian symbol now adorns

* This sigla in its simplest form, S/, makes its appearance in pro-

fusion over all the buildings of Henri IV., where it is popularly ex-

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the Collar of the Garter, formerly known as the �Collars of SS.� Meyrick�s derivation of the name from the initial of �Souver-ayne,� motto of Henry IV. when Earl of Derby (and on whose effigy the Collar first appears), is of little weight; for that king was long posterior to the institution of the Order and its in-signia. Even more preposterous is Camden�s idea that the name originated in the initials of Sanctus Simo Simplicius, a famous roman lawyer; and therefore was taken for badge by his pro-fession�a theory which assuredly does not account for Henry�s queen, Joan of Navarre, being similarly decorated with her husband upon their monument.

That the Agathodæmon sigil was not only pre-Christian, but ascended to the remotest antiquity in its use as a talisman, plainly appears from Galen�s notice thereof (De Simp. Med. 6 ix.). �Some indeed assert that a virtue of this kind is inherent in certain stones, such as it is certain is possessed by the green jasper which benefits the chest and mouth of the stomach, when tied upon them. Some indeed set the stone in a ring, and engrave upon it a serpent with head crowned with rays, according to the directions of King Nechepsos in his thirteenth book. Of this material I have had much experience, having made a necklace out of stones of the kind, and hung it about the patient�s neck, descending low enough to touch the mouth of the stomach, and they proved to be no less benefit than if they had been en-graved in the manner laid down by King Nechepsos.� This treatise by Nechepsos must have been a regular Manual for the usse of Magicians, for Ausonius mentions its author as

�Quique magos docuit mysteria vana Nechespsi.� �Nechespos, teacher of vain Magic�s lore.�

���������������� plained as relating to Gabrielle d�Estrées, a rebus in its sound, �S pereé d�un trait.� But Longpérier has shown that the same figure is to be found on the medals of Henri�s mother and sister, and even upon articles made for Anne of Austria; and he acquiesces in the explanation given in the text, which is taken from an old book, �Les Bigarrures,� chap. �Dos Rébus de la Picardie,� by Etionne Tabouret, Sieur des Ac-

corders�(�Revue Numismatique� for 1856, p. 276). � Fermesse, dont l�Amour point un

Chiffre d�amour Commune en l�écriture, mais rare

dans le c�ur, Mais ainsi que la forme est d�un

arc mis en deux Le désir inconstant froisse et

brisc tes n�uds, Ce pendant que les mains in

fermesse figurent.� �Love Papon,� 16th century.

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The book, perhaps the foundation of the pretended Evax, was the first source of the notions concorning the virtues of sigils and gems preserved to us in the mediæval �Lapidaria.� Pliny (vii. 50) quotes him along with his countryman Petosiris as an astrological authority, according to whose rule of the �Tetarto-morion� (or law deduced from the position of three signs, Trine) the possible duration of human life in the region of Italy extended to 124 years. And before dismissing Nechepsos and his book it may be as well to add here�for the fact will be of service in a further stage of this inquiry�that Pliny mentions (xxx. 2) a second school of Magi, �but more recent by many thousand yearss� than Zoroaster�s, and founded by the Jews, Moses, Iannes and Jotapes. The first of the trio may be the Talmudist to whose �secret volume� Juvenal alludes�

�Tradidit arcano quacumque volumine Moses.�

Although the Apostle couples Iannes along with Iambres amongst the Egyptian opponents of the Hebrew legislator, Juvenal also informs us that the nation retained even in his times their ancient fame of veracious interpreters of dreams; nay, more, grown �wiser than Daniel,� they even produced them to order�

�Qualicunque voles Judæi somnia mittunt.�

�The Jew, for money, sends what dreams you choose.�

IIippolytus in the following century remarks that the �Sama-ritans� or �Simonians,� founded by the first preacher of the Gnosis, Simon Magus himself, availed themselves of this power in order to plague their adversaries, �sending the dream-producing demons to trouble whomsoever they please.� The mediæval name for engraved gems regarded as talismans, viz., �Pierres d�Israel,� is better founded than is generally supposed. The obvious difficulty that graven figures�nay more, idols�could not have been the work of Jews, is answered by the Rabbinicla gloss upon the Second Commandment, which allows the wearing of any sort of design cut in intaglio, though prohibiting anything of the sort in relief.

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The choice of the green jasper (now called plasma*) for the Agathodæmon sigils was probably dictated by the resemblance of its colour to that of the sacred Asp�green banded with brown. As for the figure itself, a very ancient testimony as to its nature and signification is afforded by the tradition Eusebius has preserved (I. 7): �The serpent, unless injured by violence, never dies naturally, for which reason the Ph�nicians have given it the name of the �Good Genius,� Agathodæmom. For the same cause the Egyptians have called it �Cneph,� and given to it the head of a hawk, because of the especial swiftness of that bird.� The priest of Epeae, entitled �Head-interprerer of sacred things and Scribe,� had expounded the allegory thus: �The most divine Nature of all was of one Serpent having the face of a hawk, and most delightful in aspect, for when he opened his eyes he filled all the places of his native region with light; but when he closed them darkness immediately ensued.� The serpent on our gems, however, does not appear invested with a hawk�s head, but with a lion�s; for which reason this legend applies better to the Abraxas-god, occaaionally equipped with a hawk�s or lion�s head, in place of his proper one, that of a cock. But the idea is certainly embodied in that common design upon the Mithraic gems, a man grasping a serpent, of which the radiated head points at his eyes and seems to supply them with light. Furthermore, the meaning of the figure of the Agathodæmon is clearly denoted by the Chaldee legend frequently accompanying it, , �The Ever-lasting Sun,� which is sometimes followed by , probably used as sacred numerals, for they have the power in Greek arith-metic of 705. This same legend is attached to a classical figure of Ph�bus (such as he appears on the coins with the legend ) engraved upon a yellow jasper in the Marlborough Cabinet�a fact sufficiently attesting the accuracy of the interpretation here given to the Chaldee inscription.

Astrology likewise lent its aid to accrediting the virtues of the

* The green jasper of the moderns was the molochites or molochas of the ancients, for Pliny describes it

as opaque, dark-green, and specially used for amulets.

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sigil. That great authority Hephaestion (quoted by Salmasius, i.e.) observes that is the name of one of the Decani, or three chief stars in Cancer; whilst another astrologer laid down that the star so called was set in the breast of Leo, and for that reason was efficacious for the cure of all diseases in the chest of man. And in fact we find this latter dictum con- firmed by the prayer , �Keep in good health the chest of Proclus,� engraved upon the back of one of these very Chnuphis gems. Others of the same kind are again surrounded by a long Coptic legend often arranged in the outline of a serpent, varying in words, but always terminating in the epiphet or , �Breaker� or �Mocker� of the Giants�that is, of the evil and rebellious Angels; for the Grecian fable of the War of the Giants against Jove had then revived, a Zoroastrian interpreta-tion being applied to the rebellion of Ahriman and his demons against Ormuzd and the Ministers of Good.

The method of employing a talisman is thus prescribed in the Magic Papyrus, § 9:��A Spell of Alleius Cræonius, spoekn to the Lamp.� �Wcmarmacw tonnourai crh millon derkuwn

na Iaw soumyhfuton soumyhnij swsia siawi, Thou that that shakest the world! Enter, and deliver an oracle concerning such and such a matter. Qoio kotoq fqoufnoun nouebouh eptaspacatou. The engraved stone (l.g.) Serapis seated in front, having the Egyptian crown (basil» on) xx, and upon his sceptre an ibis, on the back of the stone the Name; and lock it up and keep it for use. Hold in thy left hand the ring; and in thy right a branch of olive and of bay-tree, waving them over the lamp, repeating all the while the spell seven time. And having drawn the ring upon the proper finger of thy left hand, facing and being inwards (the engraving), stick the gem against thy left ear, and go to sleep, without returning answer to any one.� The object of this charm was (although not so stated) to procure prophetic dreams, which are actually enumerated amongst the effects to follow from the use of the one that stands next in the MS.

Although the original invention of these Chnuphis sigils was unquestionably the one pointed out in the preceding pages, yet

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there is every probability from the nature of the case that the same were adopted and interpreted in a spiritual sense by the numerous and influeutial sect that first assumed the title of �Gnostics.� They had an all-sufficient reason for so doing, in the fundamental doctrines of their creed. The well-informed and temperate Hippolytus, writing at the most flourishing period of these transitional theosophies, thus opens his actual �Refutation of all Heresies� and his Fifth Book with the description �of that sect which hath dared to boast the Serpent as the author of their religion, as they prove by certain arguments wherewith he hath inspired them. On this account the apostles and priests of this creed have been styled �Naaseni,� from �Naas,� the Hebrew word for serpent: but subsequently they entitled themselves �The Gnostics,� because they alone understood the deep things of religion. Out of this sect sprung many other teachers, who by diversifying the original doctrines through inventions of their own became the founders of new systems.� Further on he has a passage bearing immediately upon this subject. �This Naas is the only thing they worship, for which reason they are called �Naaseni� (i.e. Ophites, or Serpent-worshippers). From this same word Naas they pretend that all the temples (nao�) under Heaven derive the name. And unto this Naas are dedicated every rite, ceremony, mystery, that is; in short; not one rite can be found under Heaven into which this Naas doth not enter. For they say the Serpent signifies the element Water; and with Thales of Miletus contend that nothing in the Universe can subsist without it, whether of things mortal or immortal, animate or inanimate. All things are subject unto him; and he is good, and hath all good things within himself as in the horn of a unicorn, so that he imparts beauty and perfection into all that ism inasmuch as he pervades all things, as flowing out of Eden, and divided into four heads. . . . This Naas is the water above the firmament,� and likewise the �living water� spoken of by the Saviour. Unto this Water all Nature is drawn, and attracts out of the same whatever is analogous to its own nature, each thing after its own kind, with more avidity than the loadstone draws the iron, the ray of the sea-hawk gold, or amber straws. Then they go

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on to boast: We are the Spiritual, who have drawn our own portion out of the living water of the Euphrates that flows through the midst of Babylon; and who have entered in through the True Gate, the which is Jesus the Blessed. And we of all men are the only Christians, in the third Gate celebrating the Mystery, being anointed with the ineffable ointment out of the horn like David, not out of the earthen vessel like Saul who conversed with the Evil Spirit of carnal concupiscence.�

Euphrates, a more recent teachar of the sect, who founded the branch calling themselves �Peratai,� or Fatalists, has a passage that indicates the sense in which his followers may have accepted these Chnuphis gems, �To thom therefore of the Children of Israel who. were bitten in the Wilderness Moses showed the True and Perefect Serpent; in whom whosoever trusteth he shall not be bitten by the serpents of the Wilderness, that is, shall not be hurt by the Powers. No one therefore is able to heal and to save them that be gone forth out of Egpyt, that is, out of the body and out of the world, save that Perfect, Full of all fulness, Serpent. In Him whosoever putteth his trust, that man perisheth not by the serpents of the Wilderness, that is, by the gods of the nativity.�

These last Powers, whom Euphrates (a pure astrologer) in another place calls the �gods of death,� are the stars of the horoscope, �which impose upon all that be born the fatal yoke of the changeful nativity,� that is, the necessity of death, the necessary consequence of birth, a doctrine that closely leads to the efficacy of the Serpent sigil as a talisman to protect the wearer against the malign influence of the astral genii. The Ophites, in fact, were the legitimate descendants of the Bacchic Mystae, whose religion during the two centuries preoeding our era must have been the predominant one in the great cities of Asia Minor. An argument derived from Numismatics establishes the common fact�the coinage of the chief cities, Ephesus, Apamea; Pergamus, was issued chiefly in the form of Cistophori, having for obverse the Bacchic Serpent, raising himself out of the sacred coffer; for reverse, two serpents entwined round torches.

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THE ABRAXAS. I. ABRAXASTER, OR BORROWED TYPES.

Bellermann in his lucid little treatise, �Drei Programmen über die Abraxas-gemmen,�* has divided his subject into three parts�the true Abraxas, all of which bear the Pantheos com-monly so entitled, whose creation is assigned to Basilides him-self; the Abraxaster, or types borrowed from the old religions, but adapted by the Gnostic semi-Christians to the expression of their own new ideas; and Abraxoid, which, though vulgarly accounted Basilidan gems, have no connection at all with Basilides� own doctrines, but owe their origin entirely to the astrologers of his or anterior times.

The Abraxaster gems, therefore, on account of this priority of their first creation, have by right the first claim to be con-sidered; and this mode of treating the subject possesses the additional advantage of elucidating the souroes of many ideas that strike us as so extraordinary in the Gnostic creed.

The strangely heterogeneous mixture of creeds that prevailed over the Roman Empire during the two centuries between the reigns of Trajan and Constantine is exemplified by numerous allusions in the �Historia Augusta,� equally with their tangible momuments, which are the subject of this inquiry. What vast encouragement (little enough needed, of a truth) must have been given to the talisman-makers by the accession to imperial power of the Syrian priest Heliogabalus! �He used to sacrifice human victims, selecting for the purpose, throughout all Italy, boys of noble birth and conspicuous beauty, having both parents living, in order that both parties might feel the keener anguish. In fact Magicians of every sort attended upon him and practised their arts every day, whilst he gave them every encouragement, and returned thanks to the gods for his having met with their especial favourites, at the same time that he was prying into the entrails of the sacrificed children, and torturing the victims to death, after the rules of his national religion.� �(Lampridius.) And yet the same amusing chronicler puts it

* Berlin, 1820.

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down amongst the accomplishments of his model Emperor, Severus Alexander, cousin-german to the monster he has previously portrayed��that he was a great proficient in Judicial Astro1ogy (mathesis), so that he gave permission to astrologers to profess and teach that science publicly at Rome. He was moreover very well skilled in divination by victims (haruspicina); also an excellent diviner by birds (ornithoscopos), so far as even to surpass the Augurs of Spain and Pannonia.� This same �every way accomplished gentleman� (to use the Elizabethean phrase) set up the statues of Abraham and Christ side by side with Orpheus and Alexander in his private chapel (Sacrarium); whilst his mad predecessor had conceived the grand notion of found-ing one universal syncretistic religion; for having conveyed to Rome his Emesene god (the aerolite), he built for him a temple on the Palatine, whither he transferred the Palladium, Vesta�s fire, the Ancilia, the Cybele�in short, whatever object of worship was most sacred to the Romans. Nay, more�he talked of drawing into the same centre the �relgions of the Jews and Samaritans and the devotion of the Christians, in order that his deity, Elagabal, might possess the mystery of every other creed.��(Heliogabalus, 3.)

Of the Abraxaster class the figures are for the most part drawn from the ancient iconography of the Egyptian religion; but they were accepted in a more spiritual sense by the newly-arisen sects, holding the doctrines of Christianity strangely amalgamated with the old teachings of the Mysteries.*

Of all these borrowed types, the most frequent and most impor-tant is the Jackal-headed Anubis (sometimes double-headed, the human being superadded to his own), and bearing the caduceus of Hermes to denote his office of conducting souls, not as of yore through the shades of the lower world,� but along the planetary path to their final rest in the Pleroma. Thus the Gnostic

* Many of the actual types�the mummified erect Osiris, the reclining Isis, the Nile, the Horus on the lotus-flower, the Anubis, &c.�occur on the contemporary Alexandrian coins; they therefore can only be accounted Gnostic productions when their

Hebrew inscrpitions certify their authorship.

� In the paintings on the mummy-case of Petemenopt (or Ammonius), Osiris the Occidental, invoked in the papyrus ritual inclosed with the corpse, is seen seated on his throne;

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Gospel, �Pistis-Sophia� (§ 20), describing the Saviour after re-ceiving his luminous vestment, inscribed with the Five words of power and with the names of all the Domination to be encoun-tered in his Ascension, makes him come first to the Gate of the firmament, then to the God of the sphere, then to the Sphere of Fate, and lastly to the Twelve great Æons: all which Powers when they beheld their own names written upon his vesture were smitted with fear and began to sing hymns unto him.

This Anubis-Hermes appears sometimes waving a palm-branch, to proclaim his victory over the Powers of Evil; or presiding at the psychostasia, �weighing of the soul,� the scene commonly pictured in the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead. In the latter character he stands here for Christ, the Judge of the quick and the dead; but his successor in mediæval art is the Archangel Michael, who holds the scales. In the old Greek gems Hermes is often represented as bending forward, caduceus in hand, and by its mystic virtue assisting a soul to emerge from the depths of the earth�a strange coincidence in form, probably too in origin, with the mediæval picture of the Saviour lifting souls out of Purgatory. The Zoroastrian Hell, a burning lake of molten metal, into which, on the Judgment-Day, Ahriman with his followers were to be cast, had for object the ultimato purification and restoration to their pristine state of the con-demned�a merciful doctrine, held by Origen, and partly allowed by Jerome.

Hermes in this particular charactor of Psychopompos was made great use of by the Naaseni (Ophites) as the prophetic representative of the Saviour in his grandest office. They interpreted Hermes� leading souls through darkness into Elysium as Christ guiding the minds of the enlightened out of Ignorance into Knowledge, in their special sense of the words. As may well be supposed, they descanted largely upon that

���������������� at his side, his wife and sister, Isis. In front stands an altar, loaded with flowers, fruits, and libations. Anubis, recognisable by his jackal�s head crowned with the pschent (tall cap), because, like the Hermes of the Greeks, he discarges important

functions equally in the supernal and infernal regions (the place of the Four Amenti), presents to his sire the defunct Petemonept, swathed in his sepulchral bandages, and holding up his hands in the attitude of supplication.

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peculiar symbol, under which form Hermes, surnamed Cyllenius, was worshipped. Amongst their mystical expositions of the object one curious fact appears, that its popular name was ¢gaqofÒron, �bringer of good luck,� for which cause it was set up at cross-roads, and upon house-tops. But as regards the ancient religion, since it is thus made out that this attribute, later modified into a Pillar, stood for Cyllenius, guide of departed souls (exactly as the same figure, lingam, represents Siva, Lord of the dead in modern Hinduism), the reason becomes obvious why its sculptured representations should have beon the earliest form of monument placed over the departed. The monuments secured for the dweller in the grave the perpetual protection of the Guide and Shepherd of souls; a colossal phallus crowns to this. day the summit of the oldest tomb, the date of which is historically certain, the tumulus of the Lydia king, Alyattes. The Asiatic colonists carried with them into Italy the same beliof in the protective virtues of ihe symbol; carved in stone it regularly surmounted the door of the sepulchre. One lately came into my possession, inscribed around with the name and patromymic of the deceased Etruscan, whose repose it had. so long guarded,

, �Suses, son of Phintas.� This double character of Anubis is very curiously expressed

by the figure upon a sard belonging to myself, which to the casual observer presents that most orthodox of types, the Good Shepherd, carrying a lamh upon his shoulders, leaning upon his staff, his loins bound with a girdle having long and waving ends. But upon closer examination this so innocent personage resolves himself into the double-headed god of Egypt, the lamb�s head doing duty for the jackal�s, springing from the same shoulders with that of the man, whilst the floating end of the girdle is turned into the bushy tail of the wolfish beast, and the �latrator Anubis� bursts upon our astonished eyes. This identification of character in Anubis and Christ enables us rightly to understand that drawing, the discovery of which created such a sensation at Rome a few years back, scratched (graffito) roughly on the plaster of a room in a house buried (in ancient times) under the extended buildings of the Palatine.

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It represents this same jackal-headed man holding in from of him a Latin Cross with his outstretched hands, and standing on a pedestal, in front of his worshipper, who makes the customary form of adoration by raising his hand to his lips, and who has expressed the object of his handiwork by the inscription

. In reality the production of some devout, but illiterate Gnostic, it is construed by the present owners* into a shocking heathen blasphemy, and a jibe upon the good Christian Alexamenos, because they mistake the jackal�s head for that of an ass, and consequently imagine an intentional caricature of their own Crucifix.

The discovery of this picture clearly illusrates a passage of Tertullian (Apol. xvi.) where he says to his opponents: �Like many others you have dreamed that an Ass�s Head is our god. But a new version of our god has lately been made public at Rome, ever since a certain hireling convict of a bullfighter put forth a picture with some such inscription as this, �the god of the Christians .� He was depicted thus�with the ears of an ass, and with one of his feet hoofed, holding in his hand a book, and clothed in the toga.� An exact description this of the Anubis figured by Matter (Pl. ii. c. No. 1.), save that instead of a book the god carries a caduceus and palm-branch. The same calumny was somewhat later transferrred by the Christians themselves to the account of the Gnostics. Not being acquainted with the Egyptian beast, they mistook (perhaps intentionally) the head of the jackal for that of the ass, which in truth it strongly resembles in the rude drawing of our gems. Thus we find, at the close of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserting �that the Gnostic Sabaoth has, acoording to some, the face of an Ass, according to others, that of a Hog; on which latter account He hath forbidden the Jews to eat swine�s flesh.� This second notion was a very ancient one, being alluded to by Petronius in �Judæus licet et porcinum numen adoret.� Now Sabaoth being held by the Gnostics as the national god of the Jews, it seems probable that this same confusion of one beast with the other was the very real source of

* Having been cut from the wall and deposited in the museum of the Collegio Romano.

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the opinion so prevalent amongst the ancients, and quoted by Tacitus (Hist. v. 4). �The sacred object so zealously guarded from profane eyes within the Sanctuary at Jerusalem was the figure of the wild ass by whose guidance they had relieved their thirst and their distress, Moses having, through the observation of the movements of a troop of these animals, discovered the spring, the waters of which saved his followers from perishing in the desert.� This legend was furthermore connected with the belief that the real god of the Jews was Bacchus, for the ass was sacred to the god of wine. For this dedication Pliny finds a singular reason in the fact that the ass was fond of fennel, a deadly poison to all other quadrupeds, but a plant specially consecrated to Bacchus (xxxv. 1). Again, that spurious gospel �The Genealogy of Mary� assigns for the cause of the death of Zacharias, son of Barachias, that once entering the Temple he beheld standing within the Sanctuary a man with the face of an ass, and when he was rushing out to cry unto the people, Woe unto you! Whom do ye worship? he was amitten with dumbness by the appraition. But afterwards, when he had recovered his speech, and revealed what he had seen unto the Jews, they slew him for a blasphemer. And this they gave as a reason wherefore the High Priest had bells fastened around the hem of his garment, in order that this monstrous deity might by their tinkling be warned of the approach of man, and so have the time to conceal himself. This wild story is preserved by Epiphanius alone, for the original work ia entirely lost. It was ascribed to St. Matthew, and was taken for their special textbook by the Collyridians, who got their name from their custom of sacrificing cakes to the Virgin Mary, whom they pretended was also born of a virgin. Faustus, bishop of Riez, cites this same gospel concerning the parentage of Mary. But the apocryphal gospel, �The Birth of Mary,� still extant, is of a totally different charactar, being a mere monkish invention of the most orthodox stupidity; and which, couplod with the �Protevangelion,� became the source of all the mediæval pictures and sculptures that set forth the history of the Madonna.

To the same Egyptian family likewise belong the boy Harpocates or Horus (the vernal Sun), having the symbol of

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fecundity monstrously exaggerated and seated upon the lotus, which expressed the same idea by its abundant seeds; and also Perfection because for its flower, fruit, bulb, all exhibit the form of the circle, as Iamblichus observes. Macrobius too remarks that Horus is the Egyptian equivalent for Apollo, who gave his name to the twenty-four hours of day and night: and this acceptation of his character is recorded by the Alexandrian plasma (Vienna Cabinet, I. 39) which identifies him with the Grecian Sun god:

. He often appears accompanied by Anubis in the character of his messenger. Again, Horus is seen adored by the kneeling Cynocephalus baboon, the animal consecrated to Luna. This last curious animal also belonged to Thoth, scribe of the gods, and makes a favourite Gnostic device performing his devotions bofore a pillar covered all over with inscriptions and supporting a triangle, symbol of the Moon whose influence was supposed singularly to affect his constitu-tion. This pillar clearly enough denotes these �Pillars of Hermes,� by means of which Iamblichus solved all the ques-tions propounded to him by Porphyrius (Jam. De Mysterieis, II.).

To make the allusion more certain, these beings are even designated in the spells by their proper name of �Titans.� Ficoroni has given in his Formæ No.4 a mould for casting the reverse of a medalat, of the 3 B size, bearing the Dioscuri facing each other, holding their spears point downwards, in token of amity, in their left hands each a situla. Behind, vertioally in two lines: in the exergue , space not admitting the remainder of the title�too well-known besides to require more than such a reminiscence.

Horus is often figured sailing through the heavens in the sacred boat, the Baris steered by two hawks; solar emblems, with sun and moon overhead, and taking the same titles ,

, &c., as the great Abraxas-god himself, and with reason, the same idea being couched in the two personifications. Horus, as Heliodorus records (Æth. ix. 22), was also applied to the Nile, whose Greek name Ne�loj also contained the mystic solar number 365; this voyager in the baris is analogous to the Hindoo Neryana, the child floating

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in his argah leaf upon the face of the waters having his whole body colouored blue (nila). To complete the resemblance the situla regularly carried from a cord in the hand of Anubis is the very lotah, brass drinking cup, of the modern Brahmins. Those common emblems, the baris and the coiled serpent, have their Gnostic meaning fully explained by a remarkable passage in the Pistis-Sophia (§ 359). �And the disk of the sun was a Great Dragon whose tail was in his mouth, who went up into the Seven Powers on the left hand, being drawn by four Powers having the similitude of white horses. But the going of the Moon was in the shape of a boat, the rudder whereof showed a male and female dragon with two white cows drawing the same, and the figure of a child on the stern guiding the dragons, who drew away the light from the Rulers (the regular synonym in the book for the rebellious Æons, lords of the Zodiac), and in front of the child was the similitude of a cat.�

The Regenration of the �Spiritual Man� occasional1y deco-rates these talismans, being symbolised in the most material-istic manner by the Solar Lion impregnating a naked woman, the recognised emblem of the soul, who, �quadrupedum ritu,� submits with joy to the vivifying operation. And the spiritual man thus regenerate is again depicted under the form of a human outline holding up by the neck a huge serpent, both of them entiroly filled up with inscribed letters, amongst which the mystic Seven Vowels largely predominate.

Scaliger, however, as cited by Salmasius, in the above-quoted work, takes this figure to be the representative of the combined 365 Æons, all whose nameS are supposed to be condensed within his outline�in short he is the emblem of the Pleroma, and stands for the �Adam-Kadmon� of the Kabbalists, the Primal Man, the Ophite Adamas, after whose image the second Adam was made. Or again, this same combination may have been intended to display the Seven Vowels, with their forty aud nine Powers, the virtues whereof are so wondroualy exalted by the. inspired writer of the Pistis-Sophia (§ 376), whose words are cited in another place.* But as the fact bears directly upon the

* Goodwin�s �Magic Papyrus,� gives, at the end of a spell (No. 1)

terminating in several vowel-com-binations, these directions for pro-

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sigil before us, it may be mentioned here that the same gosepl (358) makes the Saviour open his �Prayer� with the ejaculation,

; which, as envelopming the mystic Name of God, were the most obvious spell to be selected to fill up so important a talisman. Neither is it out of place to conclude this inquiry with the notice that the motto the mediæval House of Hapsburgh was the Latin vowels These enigmatical letters were interpreted by the arrogance of succeeding generations, puffed up with imperial dignity, into the initials of the prophecy �Austriae est imperare orbi uni-verso." But I more than suspect that the fve Latin letters were adopted by some illuminato amongst the ancient Dukes (perhaps acquired during his alchemical studies) as containing the same transcendental virtues with the Gnostic seven of the Greek alphabet.

The winged goddesses Athor and Sate, representing the Roman Venus and Juno, sometimes are found accompanied with such legends as makes it evident they too had been pressed into the Gnostic service, as representatives of certain amongst the feminine Æons.* But another shape repeatedly presents his monstrosity to our astonished gaze, whose true character almost sets conjocture at defiance, but evidently the offspring of very diverse ideas most strangely commingled. He is an aged man, Priapean, four-winged, with four hands grasping as many sceptres; he has likewise the spreading tail of the vulture and stand in the baris, or upon the coiled serpent, or on a tree- trunk, horizontal, whence project five lopped off branches. Some potont saviour must he be, for he is addressed, like Abraxas himself by the title ! But the most prominent symbol in the monstrous collocation suggests an explanation of its hidden meaning, supplied by the following

���������������� nouncing each�

� , with the mouth opened, rolled about like a wave.

, in a short manner for spiritual threatenings.

, unto Earth, Air, Heaven. , after the fashion of the cynoce-

phalus.

, in the same manner as above said.

, with gentleness aspirated. , unto the Shepherd (Hermes),

as if it were long.� * Valentinus made his Æons in

pairs, male and female.

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exposition of Justinus, that wildest teacher in all the Gnosis. �For this cause said he unto Eden, Mother, behold thy son! meaning his animal and carnal body. He himself, however, having commended his spirit into the Father�s hands, ascended up unto the Good One. Now this Good One is Priapus, He that created before anything existed. On this account he is called Priapus because he first made all things (�priapÒisi). * For this reason is he set up in every temple, being honoured by all Nature, and likewise in the roadways, having the fruits of Autumn hung about him, that is, the fruit of the Creation whereof he is the author, inasmuch as he first made the Creation which before was not.�

That very frequent type, a mummy swathed in the coils of a vast serpent, is easily explained as an allusion to the protection in the next world of the ancient agatho-demon,� or the spiritual Naas of the more recent Ophites. The same belief also generated that mora graceful allegory, the woman en-throned on the back of the same reptile, like the Atergatis of Ph�nicia.

Interesting above the rest for the part it played in mediæval superstition is the Osiris or old man, with radiated head, a terminal figure always shown in front face with arms crossed on the breast, the true Baphomet of the Templars. Sometimes he is borne aloft upon the heads of four Angels, upon whom two streams pour forth from his sides. This group has been explained as Ormuzd borne up by the Four Elements; although it may possibly refer to the notion the prophet Enoch mentions (xviii. 3) �I also beheld the Four Winds which bear up the earth and the firmament of heaven.� The idea in truth has rather an Assyrian than Egyptian cast, for in Assyrian works Athor (Mylitta) often appears pouring out from her extended arms the Waters of Life; and again the Persian female Ized Arduishar is by interpretation �The giver of living water.��

A curious specimen of ancient form, borrowed in a more

* That is, the proper symbol of Priapus, either the phallus or the Egyptian Tau.

� The painted on the mummy cases in that very capacity.

� At Tarsus (1863) was discovered in company with aurei of Sev. Alex-ander and Gordian III., a talisman thus described by Longperier: �Amulet formed of lapis-lazuli, set

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spiritual sense, is furnished by a pretty sard, found in the Punjab (Major Pearse), engraved with two figures of the Roman Providentia facing each other, in the field between them, the heads of Sol and Luna, and below , the Hebrew for Life.

The common figure G may be explained by Eusebius�s de-scription of the Egyptian hieroglyph for the world, as a circle coloured sky-blue and besprinkled with flames, in the centre an extended serpent; the whole being carelessly imitated by the letter in the Diagramma of the Ophites..

An armed man, the Mithraic soldier, one of the figures regularly set up in the mystic Cave of the Solar god, often docorates a talisman, holding a spear tipped with the head of a cock, a mark of honour granted by the Persian kings to distinguished valour (as by Artaxerxes to the Carian who slew Cyrus the Younger); or else grasping a serpent in each hand. A sect that sprung up in Egypt, the Phibionites, took the title �Militant,� Stratiwtiko�. Another figure, the three-headed, three-bodied god, who, standing like Priapus, grasped with one hand the symbols of fecundity, with the other, asps and scorpions, must be the visihle embodiment of the Great TridÚvameij, who figure so prominently in the celestial hierarchy of the Pistis Sophia. The Trees sometimes enlisted in the Talismanic corps may find their motive in the �Almond-tree� of the Phrygian Mysteries, in which the Nasseni discovered the name of the Great Creator of All; or else to the �Mystery of the Five Trees,� mentioned in that oft-quoted revelation, on whose true nature light is thrown by Justinus� exposition making out

���������������� in a gold frame of rude workmanship, with a ring for suspension. The two faces are engraved in intaglio, and represent an Æon with four wings and bird�s tail, holding two spears: and with a Venus and the inscription (not reversed) , some letters of which are concealed by the setting. Length, 0.0034; weight, 5.20 grammes (= 95 grs. troy.)� The same legend accom-panies a Venus Anadyomene upon a

large hæmatite (Praun) now in the British Museum. Montfaucon, pl. clxi. has a Venus unveiling inscribed

, �The Vision of Arori;� and another with

, and on the field for the owner�s name. It was under such a form that the Supreme Tetrad brought down Truth from Heaven to display her beauty to Marcus as he describes in his �Reve-lation'�(see p. 218).

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the Tree of Paradise to be the Angels generated between the Demiurgus Elohim and his daughter Eden.*

There is a sigil of this class, that from its frequency must have been considered of peculiar virtue. It represents a fish with immense head and shoulders, but diminutive body, as if seen from above; the reverse of the stone thus inscribed�

X CHMB Y

!

One of the three sacred fish of the Nile must figure here; and

in this talismanic character passsed, with an appropriate mystic interpretation, into the symbolism of the Alexandrine Christians.

II. ABRAXOIDS, OR GEMS CONFOUNDED WITH THE TRUE GNOSTIC.

Our invaluable and most charming guide, Hippolytus, when describing the Astrotheoscopi, �Seekers of God in the stars,� begins with a simile more apposite than complimentary to the fashion which then prevailed for combining astrology with every species of religion. He compares these inquirers to that silly fowl the bustard, which suffers itself to be caught by the follow-ing device. �When a man discovers a flock he begins to dance and make grimaces in front of them. The birds stand motionless, staring at him in wondorment until his confederate steals up to them from behind and knocks them on the head. In the same way (adds the good Saint, evidently much refreshed by his joke) do the people seduced by such teachers stare up at the stars, until at last they find themselves hopelessly caught in the snare of the heresy.� As an example of this most curious system of theology it will suffice to quote their exposition of the doctrine con-veyed by one constellation out of many. �Ophinuchus represents with his stars a man on his knees, in appearance oppressed with

* An authentic description of the Tree of Knowledge will doubtless be acceptable to my readers. �The Tree of Knowledge also was there, of which if any eats he becomes endowed with great wisdom. It was like a species of the tamarind-tree,

bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed: �How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its ap-pearance!' ��(Book of Enoch, xxxi. 3-4).

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fatigue, a posture for which that great authority in Astroloy, Aratas, is at a loss to account. But rightly understood, he is Adam engaged in watching the Dragon�s head underneath him, which is biting his heel. Over his head are seen the Lyre, and the Crown. The Lyre was the invention of the infant Hermes, who is in reality the Word of God: their position therefore announces that whosoever gives heed unto the Word, he shall obtain the Crown; but if he refuses to hearken unto the Word, he shall be cast down below with the Dragon.� In another place Hippolytus observes: �The doctrine of the Chaldæans concerning trines, quadrates, benignant and malign stars, Euphrates the Peratist applies to Christianity, by changing the concord and discord of the stars into the constitution of the Æons, the transition of Good Powers into Evil ones, and the harmony of their respective particles. From the same source he gets his �Toparchs� and �Presidents,� and all the other imagery of the astrologers.�

Such being the nature of the actual foundations of Gnosticism, no wonder that it should so frequently be impossible to decide whethor a talismanic sigil be the expression of some semi-Christian tenet, or merely the imagined similitude of some astral Power whose influence was thus secured for the wearer�s protection. For the gods of Magianism, the religion that has so deeply tinged all Gnostic doctrine, were no other than these starry Powers. The Agathodæmon himself gave his name to one of the three Decani of Cancer, as Hephaestion hath already informed us. The very title, �Decanus,� Salmasius with some reason derives from the Chaldee Dekan, �inspector,� and thereby makes. it equivalent to the Greek �Horoscopus.� �The god that looks down upon the nativity.� The common Latin derivation, in its military sense of �sergeant,� Salmasius rejects as foreign to the idea conveyed. Again, Charchnumis is named as the First Decanus in Leo, and this title actually appears around a serpent with human and radiated head, figured by Salmasius in the aame chapter. This name is sometimes written , which the same authority explains as �The All-golden One.�

A Greek atsrologer quoted without name by Samasius gives

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this curious piece of information: �There are appointed in each ono of the Signs, three Decani of different forms; one holding an axe, the others represented variously. These figures engraved in rings are amulets against all mischance.� As Teucer asserts, with other great astrologers of his times: �This, alas! too scanty notice of their attributes shows at least one of their number to be the old Babylonian god described by the prophet Barch (Epistle 13, 14)��He hath a sceptre in his hand like a man, like a judge of the kingdom�he hath in his hand a sword and an axe.� � But not merely the Decani of the Signs were thus worn in rings, but equally so the signs themselves, and the stars rising together with them, technically called o� paret�llontej. Such images were termed otoice�a, whence whose who made a business of engraving them got the name otoiceiomatiko�. They performed their work with many ceremonies, and always under the inspection of the particular Decanus, or star, whose sigil they were embodying. On this account Epiphanius speaks of the sun, moon, and planets as stoice�a, terming morfèteij the figures of the constellations formed by the imaginary collocation of the stars. The same writer uses the expression, �The stars that be vainly imagined in the shape of figures, which are called Signs of the Zodiac.� As Diodorus distinguishes between planets and stoice�a, it follows that the term was equivalent to our �constellation.� All this evinces that the Arabian writers were correct in translating stoiceiomatiko� by �talis- man-makers.� How these later astrologers thought proper to portray the Ascendants of each Sign in their �Table of the Myriogeneses� will be described in my chapter upon Talis-mans.

A curious Praun gem represents Mercury enthroned and bearing the attributes of Jupiter with the strange legend (sic) , which has been absurdly interpreted as referring to his seven-stringed lyre. More probably was the gem the signet of some �Hebdomadarian� or votary of the Number Seven; a sect of sufficient importance to get from Hippolytus a separate section for themselves in his great work. The identification of Hermes with the Christian Logos was one grand feature in the doctrine of the Naaseni, so lucidly set forth by that learned

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Father. He was of opinion that this Hebdomadarian doctrine (derived from ancient Egyptian philosophy) was the true source of every form of Gnosticism. This potent Numeral is illus-trated by another device of frequent occurrence in cameo, the Delphic crowned with a fillet, and below, the legend . This can be no other than that most holy of Numerals, the Delphic �Ei, or Five, on the mystery whereof Plutarch has left a very curious dissertation; and it represents the golden figure of that same numeral dedicated by Livia Augusta at the shrine of her husband�s peculiar patron. And similarly the gem above referred to exhibits Hermes invested with supreme dominion, and accompanied by his own special number, �testudo resonare septem *callida nervis��the Magian method for symbolizing the different Powers of Heaven, which shall be explained in its due place, when we come to treat of the �Seven Voices.�

The oddest adaptations of the imagery of the old religions mark the earliest preaching of the Gnosis. Its first apostlem Simon Magus, who passed himself off upon the Samaritans as the third manifestation of the Christ, was worshipped as late as Hippolytus� times, in statues made in the form of Jupiter. His famous concubine Helena (in whom Simon has discovered the Lost Sheep of the parable while carrying on her profession in a brothel at Tyre) was similarly adored under the forms of Minerva and the Moon (Hipp. vi. 19). The main doctrines of the Naaseni were supported by ingenious applications of the symbolism employed in the Eleusinian, Phrygian, and Samo-thracian Mysteries, of which Hippolytus has given a full and very interesting account.

Ph�nicia, again, furnished our talisman-makers with a copious repertory in the exaggerated symbolism of the figures whereby their priesthood had expressed their notions of the Divine Power. �Taut, the great god of the Ph�nicians� (says San-coniathon), �in order to express the character of Kronos, made his image with four eyes�two in front, two behind, open and closed; also with four wings�two expanded upwards, two folded downwards. The eyes denoted that the godhead sees

* The compound `Ept£crusoj is made after the same rule as the

`Ept£calkoj, the place in the wall of Athens where Sulla took the city.

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when sleeping, and sleeps when waking; the attitude of his wings, that he flies in resting, and rests in flying. Upon his head are two wings, denoting Reason and the Senses.� It is very provoking that Diodorus (xx. 19) should have given no further description of the famous Kronos, Melcarth, of Carthage than the brief remark that it held the hands open, palm upwards, but sloping downwards, so that the child sacrificed, when laid upon them, should roll off into a pit of fire at the foot. * When Agathocles was pressing hard the siege, and hope was almost lost, no fewer than three hundred children of the nobles were offered to Melcarth at one and the same time.

Inasmuch as the genius of the planet Saturn, or Kronos, was held by the Talmudists to be good and pure, contrary to those of the other planets, the Four-winged image, so common upon Gnostic gems, may reasonably be considered as a copy from the ancient original, devised by Taut. Saturn, the sole inspirer of the Law and the Prophets, had special claims to the veneration of the Alexandrine Kabbalists. And this belief explains where-fore Valentinus fixed upon this planet for the abode of Ildaboath, the Giver of the Law to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness.

It sounds like a paradox to assert that our �Gnostic� gems are not the work of the Gnostics; but taking that appellation in its strictest sense, the thing is perfectly true. The talismans we are considering never exhibit any traces of that admixture of Christian and Pagan doctrines which properly constitutes the Gnosis, that subject of the.descriptions and the attacks of the Fathers of the Church. Their elements are drawn from the ancient religions of Babylon and Egypt, mixed at times with the formulæ of the Jewish Kabbala. The �Gnostic� stones are in reality the paraphernalia of magicians and dealers in charms (charm-doctors in modern phrase), and only belong to the Ophites, Valentinians, and other subdivisions of the Christian Gnosis, in so far as those theosophists were especially given to

* This tradition was verified by N. Davis, who in excavating the ruins of the temple found, at a great depth, a thick layer of ashes mingled with

burnt human bones. The discovery is well described in his section �Mo-loch and his Victims.�

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the cultivation of the Black Art; As the notices above cited abundantly declare. This delusive study prevailed at the period of the grand development of Gnosticism to an extent which no one can credit who has not studied the historians of the Later Empire. The accusation of �magical practices� proved a ready weapon for deatroying an obnoxious individual against whom no tangible crime could be charged: what stronger proof of this than its being effectually employed (as Ammian tells us) to expel that pattern of orthodoxy, the great Athanasius, from the patriarchal throne of Alexandria? The same historian notices that under the timid Valens it sufficed to establish this capital charge if the suspected person had been seen walking at night-time in the neighbourhood of any cematery, where he might possibly have gone to hold conference with the demons of the dead.

But to exhibit the true source and nature of these �Gnostic� inscriptions, I shall transcribe a spell from the �Magic Papyrus,� to which I shall have occasion frequently to refer. The author of this wondrous Manual of Necromancy was unmistakably of the old unmixed Egyptian religion, and very probably a priest of Isis. Nevertheless, he not merely employs the very words found on our talismans, but even the same peculiar arrangement of them. Any one desirous of preserving to valuable a charm in a more durable material than papyrus or lead, had only to order a lapidary to copy it for him upon a jasper, and a regular �Gnostic� monument would have been bequeathed to our times. The maker having carefully specified the virtues of composition, gives us to understand the value of similar forms still existing on stones: VII. �Take a sheet of hieratic paper, or a leaden plate, and an iron link of a chain (kr�koj), and place the link upon the paper, and mark both inside and out with a pen the form of the link. Then having described the circular outline of the link, write upon the same outline, inscribing upon the paper the name and characters on the outside, and inside the thing which you wish not to happen, or that a man�s mind may be bound so as not to do such and such a thing. Then placing the link upon its outline which you have made, and taking up the parts outside the

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outline, sew up the link with thread so as to completely conceal it, piercing through the characters with the pen; and when you wish to bend, say��I bend such a one not to speak such a one, let him not resist, let him not contradict, let him not be able to look me into the face, or to answer me, but let him be subject unto me so long as this link is buried. And again I bind his mind, his senses, his desires, his actions, that he may be sluggish towards all men, in case (a certain woman) marries such a one,� or else �in order that she may not marry such and such a one.� Common (i.e. to be said in Greek).

�Then taking it to the grave of one untimely deceased, dig four fingers deep, and put it in and say��O departed Spirit, whosoever thou art, thou art this; I deliver unto thee such a one, that he may not do such and such a thing.� Then cover it up and depart. And you will do this best when the moon is one the wane. The words to be written with the circle are these: : : : : :

: : : (de�na)

(�Let not such and such a thing be done for so long a time as this link is buried�). Bind it with knots, making a twist of them, and so deposit it. The link may also be cast into a disused well, or into the grave of one dead before his time. And after the chracters, write also these words below the link as a plinth (or a square):

, and the inscription at the top of the page, which also you must place within it.

(This spell is repeated at the foot of the page, inscribed in one continuous circle, to show that it reads either way. It occurs also on a gem (Brit. Mus.) followed by

, �Give to Hieronima favour in the sight of all men�: and also on another, figured by Mont-facuon, II. p. 164�a proof of the importance attached to it at the time.)

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�And the same arrangement may be written upon a leaden plate; and having put the link within it, fold it over and seal with gypsum, and afterwards the base beneath, upon with

as before directed, and also these words: , �Prevent such and such a thing.�

But in the original the Names are found as follows:

, �Pre-vent such and such a thing.�

On the reverse of a Chnuphis plasma (Lewis Collection),

and (prophet) occur, as also on the Bosanquet gem. The last words may be corrupt Greek, �Restore the sight�; the object of the talisman.

FIG. 10.

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III. THE TRUE ABRAXAS GEMS.

Having in the preceding sections cleared the ground of the innumerable usurpers of the title �Abraxas gems,� we can con-veniently proceed to consider the wondrous Sigil, the invention whereof is universally ascribed to Basilides himself. And for this assumption there are very good grounds, for it is certain that such a Sigil never occurs executed in a style that bespeaks a date anterior to the gnmd heresiarch�s, the first years of the second century.

This figure, which has given its name to the whole family, is designed to represent the god �Abraxas,� for so his name is written invariably on the gems, although the Latin Fathers to suit the genius of their own lauguage have transposed the final latters. The etymology and value of the name require a whole section to themselves, so deep are the mysteries that they contain.

The purpose of the composition was to express visibly, and at once, the 365 Æons, emanations from the First Cause, whose number was probably first suggested by its own numerical signification, and consequently the figure may be taken as a speaking type of the Plermoa, the one embracing all within itself, an idea fittingly embodied in a name containing the sum of all its component powers. To shadow forth therefore this grand doctrine, the image in question is a �Pantheus,� or com-bination of many discordant attributes expressing the amalga-mation of many different ideas in one and the same figure. Hence he is depicted with the head of a cock, sacred to Ph�bus; or else of a Lion, symbol of Mithras and Belus; his body, human and clad in armour, indicates his guardian power, for he is a Virtue Militant �putting on the whole armour of God�; his legs are the sacred asps, types of the Agathodæmon, likewise indicating swiftness; for in this way, says Pausanias, was Boreas pictured upon the Coffer of Cypselus; in his right hand he brandishes a scourge, the Egyptian badge of sovereignty; on

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his left arm a shield, usually emblazoned with some word of power, declaring his perpetual warfare against the rebellious Angels, the �Gods of death.� Bellermann has proposed with much ingenuity an interpretation of this Pantheus in the more spiritual sense better consonant with the esoteric teaching of its inventor. According to him, the whole repreents the Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one pointed out by means of an expressive emblem. Thus, from the human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuoh as it is written that God created man in his own image, issue the two suppoters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner scnse and the quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents, for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign this reptile for an attribute to Pallas. His head�a cock�s�represents Phronesis, the fowl being emblematical of foresight and vigilance. His two hands bear the badges of Sophia and Dynamis, the shield of Wisdom. and the scourge of Power.

This Pantheus is invariably inscrbed with his proper name, and his epitphets, and , and often accom-

panied with invocations such as , �The Eternal Sun�; , �Thou art our Father� (sometimes curtailed, but generally so arranged as to read the same both ways); or , �The Lord.�*

In all this a further relationship to the ancient idea of the Sun-god is readily to be discovered. Ph�bus as the god of day, is similarly furnished with a whip, and the serpent, according to the Egyptians, hieroglyphically expressed his tortuous course through the Zodiac. �Adonai� was the Syrian title of the Sun, whence Adonis or Thammuz denoted that luminary at the winter solstice. Moreover, the Gnostic epithets above are the very words composing that �short prayer,� from the use of which at all sacrifices Macrobius (I. 23) makes out that the influence of the Sun is the Power supreme over all: �O Sun, Father of All, Spirit of the world, Strength of the world, Light of the world!� But the God adored under the name of

* Besides these regular titles, others are occasionally used, of un-known import. Thus a well-engraved

Abrasax figure (John Evans) has over his head , below his feet .

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�Abrasax� is clearly shown by the Bosanquet jasper (more particularly described elsewhere), exhibiting the Pantheus in the very car, and attitude of Ph�bus, and by the Alexandrian coin of Hadrian presenting Serapis similarly engaged. That the latter was the Solar deity, all mythologists were agreed; and this identity of action would lead one to suspect that �Abrasax� was no more than the mystic name of the tutelary god of Alexandria.

The older Chnuphis was occasionally (though rarely) erected with Abraxas on the tame talisman; an example of which is offered in one of the most remarkable of the class ever brought under my notice. It was brought from Bombay by a Jew (1874), and sold to M. Gaston Feuanlant, whence it came into the possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis.

Red jasper of fine quality, 1¾ 1¼ inch, with figure of Abrasax, holding whip and shield, engraved in unusually good style upon the convex face. Round the edge, beginning over the head, runs continuously,

at the back of the head, ; under beak, ; over right shoulder,

(probably nexus of ); across the field, each side of waist,

Again, across field on a level with his loins, on each side,

(perhaps Eoia, �The Serpent,� in Syriac). Between the serpent legs,

On the other side, which is almost flat, is the Chnuphis Serpent, erect, with the Seven Vowels inserted between the rays of his head. Across the middle of the field,

(�Thy God.�) Over his head, three scarabei in a row; to the right, three goats, and three crocodiles above each other; to the left, as many ibises and serpents so arranged.

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GNOSTIC PLAQUE. The most remarkable specimen of the class known to me

was obtained (Jan. 1876) from Sambon, a noted antiquario at Naples. It is a circular bronze disc, 2¾ inches (the ancient palmus) in diameter, with a small projcctlon to top, perforated for suspension. The surface of the obverse bears a genuine patina, and the characters of the legend have the true antique formation; but, for reasons hereafter to be stated, the reverse strikes me as an addition of later times�not, indeed, a forgery to entrap the antiquarian, but something intended in all good faith to augment the virtues of the original talisman.

The Abraxas-god, advancing to the right, with arms extended crucifix fashion, holding sword and shield above his head and arms,

On each side of figure�

The whole inclosed within a coiled serpent.

Reverse: King with hand on breast, seated on throne, seen in front-face. Over his head,

On each side of the figure�

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Under the footstool, similarly surrounded by the coiled serpent,

This Solomon is a truly mediæval piece of drawing; the lettering, too, evidently differs from that of the obverse; and as the surface of the plate is fresher on this aide, it is probable that the whole has been added upon the empty back of the original plate.

Some legends, following the rule of the famous , read indifferently from either end. A good example occurs on the reverse of a Serapis, carried in the baris between Sol and Luna.

(Sard, from collection of Mr. Webb Ware, Cork.) Horus seated in the baris; on prow and poop are perched the

sacred birds; neatly engraved on dark-green jasper (Pliny�s Molochites). On the reverse�

Amongst the various contents of a tomb at Saintes, discovered in 1885, was a metal ring set with a heliotrope engraved with the Agathodæmon, furnished with a human trunk, standing. On the reverse a novel formula�

Ruchael, �Spirit of God,� is known as the name of an angel; but the other words defy interpretation.

The best executed of such talismans known to me, belongs to Mr. Webb Ware, of Cork. It is an elliptical sard, about 1¾ inches long and wide; engraved very neatly with Serapis

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seated on the Baris, busts of Osiris and Isis on prow and poop; above ; below, . On the reverse, finely cut�

There is no distinction between and in the original, but I have made it where clearly required. The is a novelty; but many words in the long formula are of common occurence in other gems.

IV. THE GOD ABRAXAS AS DESCRIBED BY THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS.

That the Pantheus upon our gems was really intended to picture forth the deity styled �Abraxas� can be established by the indirect evidence of many contemporary writers. Irenæus remarks of the Basilidans, that �they use images, incantations, and all other things pertaining unto Magic.� Further on (xxiii.) he adds their custom of giving names to their images of pretended angels. And, what bears more directly on the subject, Tertullian (Apol. xvi.), after laughing at the god of the heretics as �biforme numen� (evidently in reference to the serpent legs, �biformes� being the classical synonym for the Giants similarly equipped), then goes on to say, �They have taken unto themselves gods with wings, or with heads of dogs or lions, or else serpents from the legs down-wards." Here we have unmistakable reference to the Magian, Egyptian, and Mithraic idols so common upon these talismans, and in the last words to the serpent-legged and veritable Abraxas-god.

Lastly, Epiphanius, after stating that Basilides had taught that the Supreme Being�out of whom proceeded Mind, Intelli-gence, Providence, Strength, and Wisdom�was named Abraxas, proceeds to describe in what manner the idea was embodied by

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the heresiarch: �Having taken their vain speculations, he and his followers have converted them into a peculiar and definite form, as a foundation for their own erroneous idolatrous and fictitious doctrines.� Further on he adds: �With respect to their �Kavlacav,� what person with any understanding would not laugh at their converting a Hebrew word into a bodily shape in order to represent their idol; at their per-sonified Principalities; in a word, at their fondness for images; whilst through these fancies they sow error in the minds of the ignorant for the furtherance of their disgraceful and lying trade?� Then proceeding, it would appear, to the analysis of the figure itself, he exclaims: �It is a Spirit of deceit, which, like the playing upon a pipe, leads the ignorant into many sins against the Truth. Yea, even his legs are an imitation of the Serpent through whom the Evil One spake and deceived Eve. For after the pattern of that figure hath the flute been invented for the deceiving of mankind. Observe the figure that the player makes in blowing his flute. Doth he not bend himself up and down to the right and to the left, like unto it (the serpent)? These forms hath the Devil used to support his blasphemy against heavenly things, to destroy with destruction things upon earth, to encompass the whole world, taking cap-tive right and left all such as lend an ear to his seductions.�

V. �ABRAXAS��ETYMOLOGY OF.

Of this �Great Name,� many etymologies have been pro-posed. Of all these the most satisfactory is perhaps the one offered by Rabbi Abraham Geiger, making it the Grecised form of Ha-Brachah, �The Blessing.� For there is good reason for believing that the had the sound of , which explains the strange metamorphosis of the Persian �Artashir� into �Artaxerxes.� By the same rule the Rabbi interprets the talismanic as representing El-Chai, �The Living God.� The same interpretation is again confirmed by the true solution (so long sought in vain, and now suggested by Mr. W. A. Wright) of the mighty spell abracadabra, which receives a

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most fitting sense when rendered by Ha-Brachah-dabrah, �Pronounce the Blessing,� where �Blessing� stands for the name of the Blessed One, that most potent of exorcisms.

Another derivation, extremely acute, but probably untentable, had been previously offered by Bellermann in the Coptic com-pound signifying �The Blessed Name,� made of the word ab or of, �let it be,� Rah, �adore,� and Sax for Sadsh, �name.� This formula would agree in a remarkable manner with the regular Jewish synonym for the Ineffable Name Jehovah, viz., shem Hamephorash, �The Holy Word�; which the Rabbins compress into �The Name� or �The Word.� It is, besides, a singular coincidence that the Egyptian word Abrak should be used by Moses (Gen. xli, 43), where Pharaoh commands that Joseph shall ride in his own chariot, and that they shall cry before him Abrak, �'kneel down!� where the Coptic word is actually retained in the Hebrew text, and not rendered by an equivalent in that language.* A precedent for expressing a sacred title in an unknown tongue is furnished by St. John (Rev. xix. 12): �His eyes were as a flame of fire and upon his head were many crowns, and he had a name written (upon them) that no man knew but himself: and he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and his name was called The Word of God.� And again (iii. 12): �He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City of my God.�

All this supplies a reason for the occurrence of the word abra in so many sacred titles. A very remarkable instance is to be seen in the wall-painting of the tomb of Vincentius and Vibia, in the Catacomb of Prætextatus at Rome. Now this Vincentius is described in his epitaph as priest of Sabazius, a title connected with the Iao-worship; and the name Abracura is inscribed over the head of the consort of Dispater, the two Rulers of the Shades into whose presence Vibia�s soul is ushered by Hermes. In the first title, cura is plainly the Latinised koÚrh Virgin,

* Sharpe, however, makes Abrasax a pure Egyptian phrase, signifying �Hurst me not,� as addressed to the

deity represented on the gem.�(�Egypt. Mythol.� p. xii.)

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the regular synonym for Proserpine, whilst Abra seems to have the same deeper meaning in which it was employed by the talisman-makers.

The efficacy of a Mystic Name is set forth in the Book of Enoch (lxviii. 19): �This is the Number of the Kesbal, the principal part of the oath which the Most High dwelling in glory revealed unto the holy ones. Its name is Beka: He spoke to holy Michael to deliver to them the Secret Name, that they might understand that secret name and thus remember the oath; and that those who pointed out every secret thing to the children of men might tremble at that Name and oath. This is the power of that oath, for powerful is it and strong. And he established the oath of Abrac by the instrumentality of the holy Michael. These are the secrets of this oath, and by it were they confirmed. Heaven was suspended by it before the world was made for ever. By it has the earth been framed upon the flood, whilst from the concealed parts of the hills the agitated waters proceed forth from the creation unto the end of the world. By this oath the sea has been formed and the foundation of it. . . . By this oath the sun and moon complete their progress, never swerving from the command given to them for ever and ever. By this oath the stars complete their progress. And when their names are called they return an answer for ever and ever . . . And with them he establishes this oath by which their paths are preserved, nor does their progress perish. Great was their joy.�

VI. ABRAXAS�ITS NUMERICAL FORCE.

To find out some deep mystery expressed by the numerical value of the letters in a name is the grand foundation of the famous science of the Kabbala. Although the Jewish Talmud-ists now engross all the honour of the discovery, it is but consistent with the known character of that very uninventive race to suspect that they borrowed the first notion from a foreign source�Chaldæa, the real fountain-head of all their spiritual knowledge. The earliest instance that can be quoted

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of this way of expressing a name is St. John�s so much dis-cussed �Number of the Beast,� employed to screen from vulgar curiosity some dangerous secret. What though its analysis has supplied good Protestants like Bishop Newton with a deadly weapon (in their own eyes) against the Pope after the sum total has been reduced into its integrals LateinÕj; yet a prosaic non-controversialist will be more inclined to suspect that the Kabbalistic number shrouds the name of some potentate of the times who had happened to make himself especially formidable to the beholder of the Vision.* But the titles Iao, Abraxas, and the like, instead of being recent Gnostic inventions, werein all likelibood, recognised �Holy Names,� and borrowed from the most ancient religions of the East. Pliny must be alluding to something of the sort when he mentions with a sneer the miraculous powers ascribed by the Magi to amethysts engraved with the names of the Sun and Moon�names certainly from the nationality of his authorities not inscribed in either the Greek or the Latin tongue. In the �Shemesh Eilam,� �Adonai,� �Abraxas� of these talismans we may rea-sonably recognise the words of power referred to by the great naturalist.

The Alexandrine Greeks, proceeding upon the axiom that �things equal to the same thing are equal to one another,� spied out the sacred number 365 in many Holy Names, and thus proved the identity of the several personages, so denomi-nated, with one another. To give a few examples: the same sum is obtained by adding up the numerals in Meiqraj and in Abrasax; and whether we interpret the latter as �Blessing� or �Holy Word,� both are equally applicable to the Persian god. Again, the Egyptians, says Heliodorus (Æth. ix. 22), discovered the same value in Neiloj, appellation of that earliest god and father of their land, entitled in their hymns Horus also, properly the name of the Sun.� In the new-coined religions of Egypt, other and stranger mysteries were extracted out of

* Who expressly tells us that �his number is the number of a man�; that is, the sum of the numerical letters in the name of a

certain person. The Hebrew cha-racters representing �Cæsar Nero� produce by addition the required sum.

� Amongst the many points of

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sacred names by following the old process. Kircher publishes a gem inscribed : , and supposes, with much apparent reason, the last syllable to be added in order to make up a sum equivalent to cristÕj = 1480. That most ingenious of the Gnostics, Marcus, based his whole system upon these numerical deductions. According to him, the Saviour calls himself A and W, because these letters stand for 801, which is the sum of those in perister¦, the Dove, assumed in virtue thereof for the vehicle of the Holy Ghost. But the profoundest mystery that rewarded his researches is the fact, certainly a very curious coincidence, that all the 24 letters of the Greek Alphabet added together yield the exact �number of the Name� Ihsoàj = 888. But his own words well deserve to be quoted (Hip. vi. 50): �Now Jesus had this ineffable origin. From the Mother of all things the First Tetrad, proceeded another Tetrad, and there was an Ogdoad, whence proceeded the Decad, so there were Eighteen.� The Decad therefore having come together with the Ogdoad, after that it had decoupled the same, produced the number Eighty. And again after that it had decoupled the Eighty it begot the number which is Eight hundred, so that whe whole number of the letters proceeding from the Ogdoad according to the Decad is eight hundred and eighty and eight�the same is Jesus. For the name Ihsoàj by the value of its letters is the number 888. And verily, the alphabet of the Greeks has eight monads, and eight decads, and eight hundreds, producing the number 888, which is made up by all the numbers, the same is Jesus. For this cause doth He call himself A and W, to set forth his generation from the all.� At first sight it will strike the reader, accustomed only to Arabic numerals, as a work of incredible laboriousness to discover numerical values, so aptly tallying in different words, of totally different components. But the difficulty was in truth much less than it appears. The Greek, accustomed perpetually to use the letters of his alphabet

���������������� close connection between Hindoo and Egyptian Mythology is the name of the sacred river, so nearly re-sembling the Sanscrit nil, �blue,� referring to the remarkable colour of its waters. �In Nilo cujus aqua mari

similis,� observes Pliny (xxxv. 36), speaking of a picture by Nealces of a naval battle upon that river. The Arabs still distinguish its upper con-fluents as the Blue and the White Nile.

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indifferently as symbols of numbers and of sounds, perceived the two forces at the same glance in every word that. caught his eye, and easily estimated the total value of each proper name, more especially when he made it his business to attend to such coinoidences. The same operation would be equally familiar to ourselves were our �Arabic� numerals exchanged for the first ten letters of the Roman alphabet, instead of being what they are, the ancient Palmyrene somewhat modified by the wear of ages and a long course of travel.

The use of the Numerical Value of Names is remarkably ex-emplified by a Midrash, which makes the 318 men of Abraham�s household, with whom he defeated the Five Kings, to be no more than his one servant, Eliezer, the numeral letters in whose name exactly make up that sum�a coincidence, though acci-dental, truly astonishing!

That genuine Gnostic, Dante, employs with great effect this numerical expression of a Name in that most mystical prophecy with which his �Purgatorio� closes:�

� Ch� io veggio certamente, e però il narro, A darne tempo già stelle proninque, Sicuro d� ogni intoppo e d� ogni sbarro, Nel qual un Cinquecento-dieci-e-cinque, Messo di Dio, anciderà la fuia, E quel gigante che con lei delinque.� (Canot xxxiii. 40�45.)

The interpretation whereof is found in the word formed out of the Roman letters, and applying to the �General� of the Ghibelline League, from whom such great things were expected by the poet for the chastisement of the Papacy and the restoration of the Imperial power.

FIG. 11.

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THE ABRAXAS RELIGION.

That most philosophic of the Fathers, Hippolytus, commences his account of the systems of Basilides and his successors with this ingenious and appropriate simile: �It behoves all their hearers, as they see that the doctrines of these heretics are like unto a sea tossed into waves by the fury of the winds, to sail by them without heeding them, and to look out for the tranquil harbour for themselves. For that sea. of theirs is both full of monsters, and difficult to traverse, and may be likened unto the Sicilian wherein are the fabled Cyclops, Charybdis and Scylla . . . and the rook of the Syrens which the Grecian poets tell how Ulysses sailed it past when he craftily baffled the cruelty of those inhospitable monsters. For the Syrens singing clear and musically used to beguile all sailing by, through the sweetness of their voice seducing them to come to land. Ulysses learning this is said to have stopped with wax the ears of his crew, and having tied himself fast to the. mast in this way sailed past the Syrens and overheard all their song. Which same thing it is my advice that all who fall in with these seducers should do, and either to stop his ears, on account of his own weakness, so to sail by unheeded the doctrines of heresies, without even listening to things too easily capable of seducing him by their sweetness, like the melodius Syrens� song, or else faithfully binding himself fast to the Tree of Christ to listen to them without being shaken, putting his trust in that whereunto he hath been tied, and stand fast without wavering.�

The Abraxas Deity, his titles, nature and form already having been discussed, it remains now to give a sketch of his great Apostle and his dootrines. To begin with the earliest notice of them�

Clemens Alexandrinus lived in the same city, and in the same century, with Basilides, the reputed founder of the Abraxas religion. During some years of that period they were contemporaries, and it is more than probable that Clemens was personally acquainted with Basilides�he being a very remarkable personage of his times. On this account Clemens�

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testimony to the character of the Basilidan doctrine deserves infinitely more reliance than the statements of the later Fathers; whilst at the same time he passes a more judicious, and also a more favourable judgment upon its nature. He describes the system as consisting in a constant attention to the soul, and intercourse with the Deity considered as the fountain of univeral Love. In his own words, �The Basilidan doctrine consists of two parts; the first part busies itself with divine things, and considers what is the First Cause through which all, and without which nothing is made; of what constitution are the things that pervade, or include each other: the forces which exist in Nature, and unto what they tend. The other part relates to things human, as to what is Man; what things be consistent or inconsistent with his Nature, what he has to do and to suffer. In this department Basilides includes Virtue and Vice; what is Good, what is Evil, and what is Indifferent.� In short we are here reminded of a description of a Buddhist missionary. The amiable but fanciful Clemens, whose own Christianity was no more than a graft upon the congenial stock of his original Platonism, could see very little to blame in the transcendental speculations of Basilides. In his eyes the latter was not a heretic, that is, an innovator upon the accepted doctrines of the Catholic Church, but only a theosophic specu-lator who sought to express old truths by new formulæ, and pcrhaps to combine the same with the new faith, the divine authority of which he was able to admit without renouncing his own creed�precisely as is the case with the learned Hindoos of our own day.

But far different is the picture of Basilides, as drawn by the pen of bigoted orthodoxy in the two next centuries, after his doctrines had been taken up and carried out to monstrous precision by the swarms of semi-Christian sects that sprung up in the very bosom of the Church. These notices are sujoined in chronological order, for they give in a few words the grand features of the perfected system. Hippolytus has left an excellent analysis of the Basilidan doctrine, well deserving of careful study, although. it is hard to seee how it bears out the assertion at the opening, that this heretic took his entire system

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ready made from Aristotle, with his genus, species and individual, but pretended to have derived the same from St. Matthew, who had connnunicated to him the esoteric doctrine which he alone had received from Christ when on earth. The philosophic Bishop, however, is mild in censure; nay, seems rather capti-vated by the ingenuity of tha Alexandrine mystic. But Tertullian, with no sense of the beauty of a clever piece of sophistry, launches out like a true African barrister: �After this, Basilides the heretic broke loose. He asserted that there was a Supreme God named Abraxas, by whom was created Mind whom the Greeks call Nous. From Mind proceeded the Word, from the Word, Providence; from Providence, Virtue and Wisdom; from these two again, Virtues, Principalities and Powers were made; from these infinite productions and emissions of Angels. By these Angels the 365 heavens were created. Amongst the lowest Angels, indeed, and those who made this world, he sets last of all the god of the Jews, whom he denies to be God, affirming that he is one of the Angels.� Similarly the still later Jerome has (Amos III.): �So Basilides, who called Almighty God by the portentous name of Abraxas, saying that the same word according to Greek numeration, and the sum of his annual revolution, are contained in the circle of the Sun, whom the heathen taking the same amount but expressed in different numerical letter call Mithras; him whom the simple Iberians worship under the names of Balsamus (Ball-samen, �Lord of heaven�) and Barbelus (�Son of Baal�). And that this wondrous title Abraxas had long before been applied to the Sun-God in the formulæ of The Mysteries may be inferred from various incidental allusions of ancient writers. Thus Theosobius the philosopher (says Photius, in his �Life of Isidorus�) drove a devil out of a woman by merely invoking over her �the Rays of the Sun, and the Name of the God of the Hebrews.� The same explanation is much supported by the words of Augustine: �Basilides asserted the number of heavens to be 365, the number of the days in the year. For this reason he used to glorify a Holy Name, as it were, that is the word Abraxas, the letters in which, taken according to the Greek method of computation, make up this number.�

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The Basilidan doctrine of �Emanation� was greatly refined upon by Valentinus, whose muster-roll of the celestial hierarchy shall be given in its proper place. Suffice it here to observe that the entire theory resembles the Brahminical; for in that theogony each Manifestation of the One Supreme Being, regarded by the vulgar as a separate self-existing deity, has a female partner the exact counterpart of himself, through whom, as through an instrument, he exerts his power�to express which doctrine this other half is styled his Durga, �Active Virtue.� This last name, �Virtue,� actually figures in all the Gnostic lists of Emanations; and the great Æon, Pistis-Sophia, in her second �Confession� perpetually upbraids herself for having quitted her male SÚsucoj, partner, in her proper habitation, to go in quest of the Supernal Light: which she equally reproaches him for not descending into Chaos to her aid. The system of Dualism, in fact, pervades the whole of that wondrous revelation.

Brahminical inspiration is possible in many other points of the doctrine of Basilides, as will appear by the following extracts from Irenæus�whose judgment was not warped, like that of Hippolytus, by the mania for deriving his system from the Aristotelian. Basilides (according to him) lived at Alexandria under Trajan and Hadrian (the first half of the second century), and commenced life as a student of the Oriental Gnosis�an epithet sufficiently indicating the source of that philosophy. Being converted to Christianity he attempted, like many others, to combine his new faith with his old, for the explanation of things both spiritual and natural. To do this he invented a terminology and symbolism of his own. In the promulgation of his peculiar notions concerning God and the Divine attributes �the Word, the Creation, the Emanation of spirits and worlds, the Architect of the universe, and the multifarious forces of Nature�he took the same road with his contemporary Satur-ninus in Syria. His system was a combination of Christian, Jewish, Persian and Egyptian notions, but the entire com-position was moulded by the spirit of the Oriental Gnosis. These tenets their author zealously promulgated. For many years he taught in the school of Alexandria; he was also a most prolific writer. Clemens says he published twenty-four

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volumes of �Interpratations upno the Gospels,� besides �Odes� and �Spiritual Songs�; all of which have perished. The doctrines he thus disseminated his contemporary Irenæus represents in the following manner:�

�Basilides in order to invent something more refined and plausible in the Gnostic speculative philosophy pushed his investigations even into the Infinite. He asserted that God, the uncreated eternal Father, first brought forth Nous or Mind; and Mind, the Logos, Word; this in turn, Phronesis, Intelligence; whence came forth Sophia, Wisdom, and Dynamis, Strength.� Irenæus thus understands Basilides as making a Quinternion of Beings or Personal Intelligences external to the Godhead: but Bellermann with more reason takes them as signifying personi-fied attributes of the Supreme forms of his working internally and externally. According to this explanation Basilides would only have borrowed his system from the Kabbala; it is however equally likely that he drew the whole from a much more distant source, and that his �Uncreated� and �Quinternion� stand in truth for the First Buddha and the successive Five.

�When the uncreated eternal Father beheld the corruption of mankind, he sent his Firstborn, Nous, into the world in the form of Christ, for the redeeming of all that believe in him out of the power of those who fabricated the world�namely, the Demiurgus and his Six sons, the planetary Genii. Nous appeared amongst men as the Man Jesus, and wrought miracles. This Christ did not die in person, but Simon the Cyrenian, to whom he lent his bodily form, suffered in his stead; inasmuch as the Divine Power, the Nous of the Eternal Father, is not corporeal, and therefore cannot die. Whoso therefore maintains that Christ has died is still the bondman of Ignorance, but whoso denies the same, he is a freeman, and hath understood the purpose of the Father.� From this tenet the Basilidans got the opprobrious title of �Docetæ� (Illusionists). Similarly the pious Brahmins explain away all such of their legends as are inconsistent with our notions of divine dignity by making them all �Maya� (illusion). The same is also the doctrine of the Koran (Cap. iv.) upon this point: �And for that they have not believed upon Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a

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grievous calumny, and have said, Verily we have slain Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the apostle of God; yet they slew him not, neither crucified him, but he was represented by one in his likeness; and verily they were disagreed concerning him, were in a doubt as to this matter, and had no true knowledge thereof, but followed only an uncertain opinion. They did not really kill him, but God took him up unto himself, and God is mighty and wise.�

The system just described coincides to a remarkable degree with the Brahminical, where the First Principle produces in succession the Five Powers�Mahasiva, Sadasiva, Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma�-who are held by some for mere attributes of the Godhead; by others are taken in a materialistic sense for Æther, Air, Fire, Water, Earth. But possibly, as Mosheim so long ago maintained, the whole Gnostic system is derived, not from the Kabbala, nor from the Greek philosophy, but from the theosophy of the Brahmins.

Another circumstance in the Basilidan practice, mentioned by Irenæus, will receive abundant illustration from the study of these talismans. �Furthermore the sect have invented proper names for these Angels, and class them under the first, second, third heavens, and so on. Besides this, they endeavour to explain the names, origin, powers, and Æons of their pretended 365 heavens�similarly they give its own name to the terrestrial sphere, which they say the saviour (whom they call Kavlacav) has visited, and then abandoned. Who understands this rightly and knows the Æons with their respective names, the same shall be invisible unto, and beyond the power of, those Æons, in the same manner as the Savior Kavlacav himself was. As the Son of God remained unknown in the World, so must also the discipIe of Basilides remain unknown to the rest of mankind, as they know all this, and nevertheless must live amongst strangers, therefore must they conduct themselves towards the rest of the world as beings invisible and unknown. Hence their motto, �Learn to know all, but keep thyself un-known,��and for this cause they are accustomed to deny the fact of their being Basilidans. Neither can they be detected as Christian heretics, because they assimilate themselves to all

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sects. Their secret constitution however is known to but a few, perhaps to one in a thousand or two in ten thousand. The local situation of their 365. heavens they parcel out just like land-surveyors. Their doctrine is contained in a sacred book, and likewise in Symbolic Figures. The Supreme Lord, the Head of all things, they call Abrasax, which name contains the number 365.�

So much virtue being involved in a perfect knowledge of the names of the Æons, it would be unpardonable not to subjoin them, as far as they can possibly be procured at present and, the follow-ing may be taken for their most authoritative roll-call, having been drawn up by Valentinus himself, the profoundest doctor of the Gnosis, and who had elaborated to the highest degree the system first sketched out by Basilides. He arranges them in pairs, male and female, in the order of their successive emanation from Bythos, the pre-existing, eternal Principle. The number of pairs is fifteen, or the sacred number Five three times repeated. Their namcs, it will be seen, are Hebrew words, the va preceeding some of the female powers being merely the copulative �and.� Matter supposes Valentinus to have been of Jewish origin, although born at Alexandria. Tertullian states that he was first of all a Platonist, then a convert to Christianity, but having been disappointed in his aspirations to a bishopric he founded a religion of his own.

1. Ampsiu, Ouraan = Depth, Silence. 2. Bucua, Thartun = Mind, Truth. 3. Ubucua, Thardedia = Reason, Life. 4. Metaxas, Artababa = Man, Church. 5. Udua, Casten

Udu, Vacastene = Comforter, Faith

6. Amphain, Essumen = Fatherly, Hope. 7. Vannanin, Lamer = Motherly, Charity. 8. Tarde, Athames = Eternal, Intelligence. 9. Susua, Allora = Light, Beatitude.

10. Bucidis, Damadarah = Eucharistic, Wisdom. 11. Allora, Dammo = Profundity, Mixture. 12. Oren, Lamaspecha = Unfading, Union. 13. Amphipuls, Emphsboshbaud = Self-born, Temperance. 14. Assiouache, Belin = Only begotten, Unity. 15. Dexariche, Massemo = Immobable, Pleasure.

Epiphanius has evidently copied one pair (5) twice over,

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misled by a slight different of spelling, and thus adds one pair to the proper fifteen.

It will be very instructive to compare this Valentinian systcm of Emanation, which makes all to proceed in pairs, male and female, out of the First Cause, with that Indian theosophy which this very feature indicates as its real source, in the latter, every Principle is divided into a male and female Energy, each exactly alike the other��the same, distinguished by their sex alone.� Each deity exerts his power through the agency of his female Principle or Sacti, which in turn possesses a Váhan �vehicle,� that is an instrument or attribute, which is fixed and represented in a material form. Of the Persons in the Supreme Triad, the Sactis and their Váhans* are:�

1. Of Brahma, Saraswati, goddess of harmony and the art (the Jewish Wisdom); her váhan is a swan, or goose. (Hence Juno�s Capitoline bird, afterwards explained by an historical fiction.)

2. Of Vishnu, Lakshmi, goddess of Prosperity, she has the title of Kamalá, �lotus-bearer;� her vahán is Garuda, the man-eagle. Vishnu in one Avatar takes the name �Varáha,� and his consort �Varáhi,� in which case her váhan is a buffalo.

3. Of Siva the Changer or Destroyer, the Sacti is Bhaváni, goddess of fecundity, and consequently of death, for the first im-plies the second �Nascantos morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.�

Nothing perishes, things only take a new form called by the ignorant Death. (Compare the title �Gods of death,� which the Ophites were so fond of giving to the �Gods of the Nativity,� the astral genii ruling the horoscope). Bhavani�s appropriate vehicles are the Bull, emblem of generation, and the Tiger, of destruction.

And before going further I cannot resist observing how these names and symbols manifest the far-spreading influence of the nations. they embody. The Sassanian queens in their gem

* It might even be suggested that Indian influence shines through the whole Apocalypse. The Four Beasts (borrowed it is true from the First Vision of Ezekiel) are these Váhanas, ministers of the Divine Will. Later times assigned each to an evangelist. The Four-and-twenty

Elders had their prototypes in the Saints to the same number of the Buddhist theology: the �sea of glass or crystal� is the vast crystal block suspended in the highest heaven, the shrine of the Supreme Being; ab-sorption into whom is the true object of the believer.

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portraits generally bear the lotus in the hand,* �Varanes� is a common name for the kings of that line, and the Brahminic Bull, the commonest of all signet devices with their subjects. But as the dominions of the later Persian kings extended as far as the Indus, Hindoo princesses doubtless entered their harems and communicated their own religion to their children.

Again, many of those Sanscrit titles bear a resemblance, certainly not accidental, to words frequently occurring in the Gnostic inscriptions. Thus �Sumitri,� wife of Vishnu in his seventh Avatar may explain Soumarta; and �Nátha,� a title of Vishnu and Crishna, the equally common Nautita; �Isa,� lord, feminine, �Isi,� lady, is perhaps even the origin of Isis; and �Nila,� dark-blue, and epithet of Parvati, is more appropriately transferred to Father Nilus. Vishnu in infancy as Narayana floating in his �Vat,� leaf boat over the face of the waters, and coloured all over blue, may be compared to the child Horus wafted in the baris. The most ancient of all creeds having, as above shown, made the lotus the symbo1 of Plenty, the reason becomes obvious for the introduction of its seed-vessels, always mistaken for poppyheads, amongst the wheatears in the cornucopia of Ceres.

The above quoted Soumarta seems to have been applied by the Gnostics to the Sun-god, for Montfaucon gives (Pl. 157) a figure of Sol so inscribed, with ceroàbi on the reverse, a manifest invocation to all the angelic host. And as the pro-tection of this, celestial hierarxhy is so perpetually sought by our talisman-makers in their �voluntary humility and wor-shipping of angels,� I subjoin the names of the Hindoo Guardians of the �Johabs,� quarters of the world, which may perhaps lurk in their Grecised form amongst these interminable strings of titles.

E. Indra. N.W. Váyu. S.E. Agni. N. Kuvera.

S. Yama. N.E. Jsána. S.W. Niritti. Above. Brahma.

W. Varuna. Below. Nága. Of the centre, Rudra.

���������������� * In the character of Kamalá, as the later Greek, and the Roman ladies in

that of Isis.

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THE INEFFABLE NAME IN THE HINDOO FORM.

We have already seen how important a part the notion of an �Ineffable Name,� denoting the inconceivable Supreme, plays in the machinery of the Gnosis, and here again the original idea is to be found fully developed in the practice of the Brahmins. This awful name emblazoned in three Sanscrit letters within a cartouche formed by a coiled serpent (that normal inclosure for a Holy Name in Gnostic art)* is fittingly borne up by the elephant headed Ganasa, god of Wisdom. The word being triliteral is rather than , as usually written in English. It is never to be uttered aloud, but only mentally by the devout. Of the characters, signifies the Creator, the Preserver, the Destroyer; that is, the Triad Brahma-Vishnu-Siva. �If pronounced aloud, the sound much resembles Amen as drawled out by a coutnry parish clerk. In fact it is used for �Angiekar,� So be it! in token of approbation� (Moor, Hindoo Pantheon).� And here a very curious analogy is to be pointed out in the assertion of the Talmudists that the word Amen if shouted aloud is of power to open the gates of Heaven. In the Pistits-Sophia the �Three Amen,� and again the �Four Amen,� are repeatedly mentioned amongst the other Mysteries revealed by the Saviour in his esoteric teaching. On this account the word may be

* As the Pistis-Sophia informs us, �the disk of the sun was a great dragon having his tail in his mouth,� the meaning of this figure whereon the sacred word is emblazoned be-comes sufficiently obvious.

� �Glorifi-cation of the Deity,"�is the Thibetan Confession of Faith, engraved on stone tablets set up everywhere over the country; and everlastingly chanted by the Lamas as they tell their beads. (Cooper�s �Travels of a Pioneeer,� p. 208). Huc mentions that the Lamas assert that the doctrine contained in these words is immense,

and that the whole life of man is not sufficient to measure its depth and extent. Know (�Overland through Asia�) describes the ruined �Monas-tary of Eternal Repose,� built at the junction of the Augoon with the Amoor by an emperor of the Yuen dynasty to commemorate his visit to that region. On the summit of the cliff are three columns, 5 to 8 feet high of marble granites, and porphyry and granite, bearing inscriptions commemorating this foundation, and also this formula in Chinese, Mon-golian and Thibetan.

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suspected to have some connection with the Hindoo Sacred Name, unless indeed Valentinus had got it nearer home, from the four �Amenti,� guardians of the dead, and sons of Osiris. The common explanation that �Amen� signfies Truth in some Eastern dialect, does not seem to rest on good found-tion. The Kabbalist Marcus discovered a great mystery in Amhn, taken numerically, the number Ninety-nine became formed by the union of the Eleven and the Nine and therefore set forth by the parables of the piece of silver, and the ninety and nine sheep, �which is the reason why we use �amen� in prayers.�

Other Hindoo tides of the Deity are �Tat� and �Sat� = Virtue. These are recognisable in the Egyptian gods Tat or Hermes, and Sate, Truths. It is likewise more than probably that the mighty itself often lies enshroded amidst the lines of vowels filling our talismans. Certainly the Praun calcedony (No. 517) bearing on one side the Delphic Apollo in a good style of art, or the other (by a later hand) a man dancing with his apron filled with fruits, presents in its legend puropaiow

aoum alei, the Sanscrit triliteral in the only form. in which Greek characters could express the sound.

The origin of this Ineffable Name is thus related (�Inst. Manu,� ii. 370) �Brahma milked out as it were from the three Vedas the letter A, the letter U, and the letter M; together with the three mysterious words �Bhur,� �Bhavah,� �Swar,� or Earth, Sky and Heaven. From the three Vedas also the Lord of Creation, incomprehensibly exalted successively milked out the three Treasures of the ineffable text, beginning with the word �Tat,� and entitled the �Savatri,� or Gáyatri. A priest who shall know the Veda, and pronounce to himself both morning and evening that syllable and that holy text preceded by the Three words shall attain that sanctity which the Veda confers: and a �twice born� man who shall a thousand times repeat those Three apart from the multitude, shall be released in a month even from a great offense, as a snake from its slough. The Three great immutable words preceded by the Triliteral syllable and followed by the Gáyatri which consists of three measures, must be considered as the mouth, or principle part of the Veda.� In

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this doctrine lies the very origin of all talismanic inscriptions, for their essence is the stringing together of sacred names. Nay more, the actual Three words, disguised by Coptic pronunciation, or purposely sealed from profane eyes by a duplication of vowels, very probably exist in the midst of certain Gnostic formulæ. In the spell of Battus, hereafter to be quoted, words of the same sense as the Hindoo Three do in reality occur.

The Gáyatrí or holiest verse of the Vedas is: �Let us adore the supremacy of the Divine Sun, the Godhead who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, unto whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our progress aright in our progress towards the Holy Seat.� Another is; �Earth, Sky, Heaven; Let us mediatate upon that most excellent Light and Power of that most generous, sportive, and resplendent Sun, that it may guide our intellects.� In all this there is something that irresitably reveals the Gnostic invocations whenever they can be interpreted, and the �Divine Sun� finds its counterpart in the �Shemesh Eilam� so perpetually repeated.

This Gáyatri is contained in the confession of faith of the Brahmin. �This new aud excellent praise of thee O, splendid playful Sun (Pushan) is offered by us to thee. Be gratified by this my speech: approach this craving mind as a fond man seeks a woman. May that Sun who contemplates and looks into all worlds be our Protector! Let us meditate on the adorable light of the Divine Ruler (Savitri); may it guide our intellects. Desirous of food we solicit the gift of the splendid Sun, who should be studiously worshipped. Venerable men, guided by the understanding, salute thee, Divine Sun, with oblations and praise.�

Moor hereupon makes the very pertinent remark: �It is difficult to conjecture why this text should be so studiously kept secret, for its exposition, unconnected with any idea of mystery, and affectation of profundity, does not appear likely to have the effect so dreaded by all priests of guiding the intellect of man-kind to the discovery of Truth.�

As already remarked our Gnostic formulæ when expressed in Greek have a spirit and a rhythm that strikes the ear as the echo of these primitive invocations; witness the legend upon the

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plasma described by Cranzer (Archeol. iii. last plate). Within the serpent-formed cartouche is an inscription of many lines, the first half an undecypherable medly of letters, which like Marcus� thirty syllabic appellation of the Supreme Tetrad, must express the name of the Unknown God, who in the following portion is invoked as: �The Primal Father, incorporeal, pervading all things, self-existing, the seal of Solomon:� then come more mystic epithets ending with �lion-headed,� evidently the Mithraic figure of that kind. The declaration that the unknown legend is the �Seal of Solomon� is extremely interesting, as showing the early date of the celebrity attained by that most famous of talismans; which, be it remembered, was reported to derive its virtue from the mighty throne of God engraven on the gem.

Many further analogies between the two theosophies may be detected in the Hindoo forms of worship published by Moor. Of the Persons in the Supreme Triad, Brahma represents the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer. But the last is more truly the Changer, all death being only change. Siva therefore in one of his characters becomes identified with Yama, god of the Shades. Now, seeing that the first two Persons are symbolised by the elements Fire and Water, the analogy of the Hellanic Tirad, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, becomes at once apparent. Here also we find the originals of the �Great Tridun£meij,� who hold so high a place in the hierarchy of the Pistis-Sohpia.

The famous Inscription of Buddha-Gaya, Bengal, dated the year 1005 of the era of Vikramaditya (B.C. 57) contains this remarkable passage: �Amaradiva [son of Sandracottus] having heard this voice caused an image of the Supreme Spirit, Buddha, to be made; and he worshipped it, according to the law, with perfumes, incense, and the like, and he thus admired [magnified] the Name of that Supreme Being, an Incarnation of a portion of Vishnu. Reverence be unto thee in the form of Buddha; reverence be unto thee, Lord of the Earth! Reverence be unto thee an Incarnation of the Deity, and the Eternal One: Reverence be unto thee O God, in the form of the God of Mercy, the Dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the

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Deity who overcomes the sins of the Kali yug (Iron Age), the Guardian of the Universe, the emblem of Mercy towards all them that sue thee� , the Possessor of all things in vital form. Thou art Braham, Vishnu, and Mahesa (Siva); Thou art the Lord of the universe; thou art the proper form of all things,* moveable and immovable, the Possessor of the whole. And thus I adore thee. Reverence be unto thee the Bestower of Salvation; Reverence be unto thee the Destroyor of the Evil Spirit, Kesi;� O Damadara shew me favour! Thou art he who resteth upon the face of the Milky Ocean, and who lieth upon the serpent Sesha. Thou art Trivikrama, who at three strides encompasseth the earth; I adore thee, who art celabrated by a thousand names, and under various forms, in the shape of Buddha, the God of Mercy; be propitious, O thou Most High! Having thus worshipped the Guardian of mankind, he became like one of the just. He joyfully caused a holy temple to be built, of a wonderful construction, and therein were set up the Divine Feet of Vishnu, for ever Purifier of the sins of mankind; the images of the Pandus, and the Descents of Vishnu (Avatars); and in like manner of Brahma and the rest of the divinities.� (Hind. Panth. p. 223.)

It may here be observed how extensively this symbol of the Divine Foot has pervaded the religions of the West. Feet either in relief or in cavo, cut in stone, are common about Hindoo temples; according to tradition they are memories of suttees, the self-sacrificing widow having mounted from that stone upon the pyre. This usage supplies the connection of the symbol with Serapis, the translated Yama, god of Hades. Compare the colossal Foot dedicated to the Serapis of Alexandria, as his special attribute, and recently exhumed from the ruins of his temple.� It is richly sandalled, and on the top sits enthroned the god himself, with his attendants Cerberus and the Serpent, Tricasa

* Meanin the pre-existing Type, the Platonic Idea, the Persian Fe-rouher, the Rabbinical Adam-Kad-mon�all springing from this source.

� This explains the title of the deity so often put on our talismans, Gigantor»kthj.

� The religions importance of the symbol is attested by an Alexandrian coin of commodus, having for re-verse this same Foot, with the bust of Serapis placed on the section of the leg. (Feuardent, �Egypte An-cienne.� pl. xxvii.)

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and Sesha in Grecian disguise. The same Foot, winged and girt with the Serpent placed between two seated lions, is cut on the altar inscribed �Deo Sarapi M. Vibius Onesimus ex visu� (Montfaucon, pl. 122). The same idea produced in Ceylon the print of Adam�s foot upon the summit of the Peak, bearing his name, whence he had ascended to his Creator, and equally, in the very metropolis of Christianity, that of Christ himself, stamped in the basalt paving-stone of the Via Appia, still worshipped in the church and entitled, �Domine quo vadis?�

An ancient silver plate, found in a pit at Islamabad, at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal, records the hallowing of the site of a projected temple there in the deposit in that pit of 120 small bronze images called �Tahmudas,� twenty of larger size, �Languda,� one large in stone, �Langudagari,� and a brass vessel containing two of the bones of �Thacur.� This last title, �Noble,�* is the regular style of a god, or a deified mortal. In mediæval ecclesiastical usage (which probably still continues) it was indispensable for the consecration of any altar in a church that a relic (bone) of some Saint should have been deposited under its base. The same silver plate contains this account of the birth and infancy of Buddha. This coincidence, if acci-dental is very curious. When Buddha Avatar descendod from the region of souls, and entered the body of Mahamaya, the wife of Soontala Danna, Raja of Kailas, her womb suddenly assumed the appearance of clear transparent crystal in which Buddha appeared, beautiful as a flower, kneeling, and reclining on his hands. When born he had on his head two feet, and on his hands the marks of wheels. Brahma attending at the birth received the infant in a golden vessel, and delivered him unto Indra.�

This intimate connection of the theosophies of India and Greece was originally (before the period of direct commerce) kept up through the medium of the Persian Magi, as the classical writers themselves show by casual but trustworthy allusions. Their notices were till lately reckoned, amongst the other fictions of �Graecia Mendax,� but better acquaintance with Sanscrit and Pehlevi records have revealed their truth.

* Exactly answering to the ancient Divus, the Catholic Saint.

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For it is now accepted as certainly proved by the oldest portions of the Zendavesta (the �Gathas,� or hymns) that the primitive religion of the whole Aryan race, previous to the great division, was a simple worship of the Powers of Nature. This religion was reformed by Zoroaster, who retained the old names for his Angels, but superadded the idea of the One Supreme.

Ammian in his account of Julian�s Persian expedition, gives the following curious, though oddly blundered, details upon this subject (xxiii. 6). �In these tracts are situated the fertile lands of the Magi [in Media], concerning whose profession and pursuits, since we have come upon them, it will be fitting to give here some brief information. Plato, that greatest authority upon celebrated doctrines, states that the Magian religion, known by this mystic name of �Machagestia,� is the most uncorrupted form of worship in things divine. To the philosophy of this religion, Zoroastres, a Bactrian, in primitive times, made many additions drawn from the Mysteries of the Chaldæans, as did still later Hystaspses, a very learned prince, father of Darius. This King Hystaspes, when he was boldly penetrating into the unknown regions of Upper India, had come upon a certain wooded solitude, the tranquil silence of which is occupied by those incomparable sages, the Brachmans. Instructed by their teaching in the science of the motions of the world and heavenly bodies, and also in pure religious rites as far as he was able to gather them�of the notions thus acquired he transfused a certain proportion into the creed of the Magi. The latter coupling these doctrines with their own peculiar science of foretelling the future, have handed down the whole through their descendants to succeeding ages. Thenceforth, in the course of many generations to the present time, a multitude, sprung from one and the same stock, dedicates itself to sacred office. It is said they preserve unextinguished the Sacred Fire which first of all fell down from heaven, a portion where- of used always to be carried before the kings of Asia as a good omen. The number of persons so descended was at the first but small, and they were exclusively employed by the Persian kings for the performance of religions services. It was con-

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sidered a great offence to approach the altar, or to touch the sacrifice, before a Magus, after reciting the appointed prayers, had poured upon it the preliminary libation. But through gradual increase they are grown into the name and dimensions of a distinct people, and inhabit villages unprotected by walls, being allowed to follow their own laws, being respected on ac-count of their religious character. It was from this race of men that the seven, as ancient history records, usurped the Persian throne upon the death of Cambyses, and were crushed by the conspiracy of that Darius who gained the kingdom through the neighing of his horse.� The worthy, but pedantic old soldier, in his anxiety to show off his historical reading, has committed certain very ludicrous blunders in this account. The father of Darius was no �ancient king of Persia,� but merely governor of that province (�parcoj) under Cambyses (Her. iii. 70). His name, derived from �Gushtasp,� the planet Venus, was doubt-less commn enough wherever Magism was the estabished religion. And yet more ludicrously does Ammian convert the one Magian usurper, Smerdis, into seven, the actual number of the Persian nobles who put him down. Nevertheless, the tradition has great value, as proving the previous existence of the Magi in a community of diviners and seers (like the ancient Jewish fraternities, �Sons of the Prophets,�) and the subsequent modi-fication of their doctrines by the importation of Brahminical ideas, following upon the conquest of Indian provinces. Such being the case, one need not be surprised at finding Sassanian kings named after Hindoo deities, like the numerous Varanes (from �Varani,� Vishnu�s title) just as others of their line assume that of the proper Persian god, Ormuzd, in the form of that favourable royal appellation, Hormisdas (Ahoromasdi).

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ABRAXAS-GEMS, THEIR MATERIALS, WORKMAN- SHIP, AND NATURE.

Following the axiom, �that the body is more than the raiment,� the foregoing chapters have been devoted to the consideration of the notions which our talismans have invested with visible form. These visible forms, therefore, their materials, and manufacture, now come before us for explanation �a wide field for curious research, and extending into many diverse regions of Archæology.

The genuine Abraxas-gems that yet fill our cabinets, came originally for the most part out of Egypt; others, as their differing style shows, from Asia; others again from Syria, where many Basilidans had established themselves at an early period. Amongst these philosophising semi-Christian sects the figure of Abraxas was held in high esteem. �They used it (says Bellerman) as a Teacher in doctrine, in obedience to whom they directed their transcendental researches and mystic instruction; as a Token and a Password amongst the initiated, to show that they belonged to the same fraternity; as an Amulet and a Talisman, and lastly as a Seal to their documents.�

Gnostic intagli are almost the sole productions of the Glyptic Art, during the time it was dying out, all through the last two centuries of the Western Empire, if we except a few rude figures of the goddess Roma, Victories, and Eagles made for legionary rings. As may easily be supposed the art displayed in these designs is at its lowest ebb, being itself a degenerate successor to the debased Egyptian schooI of Alexandria.* The

* Their barbarism, however, is often in advance of that of their real period. A convincing example is the one found in the great treasure-trove of Tarsus, where the latest coins went no later than Gordian III. It was a black hematite, with a four-winged, sceptre-holding Æon, reverse Venus Anadyomene, with her usual title , scratched in

so rude a style that one would have placed its execution three centuries later, but for the company in which it was found. Another point of interest was its retaining the original setting�a cable-mounted frame, with loop, of massy gold�proof of the value placed upon its potency. (Franks Collection.)

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engraving seems to have been entirely executed by means of a coarse wheel, like that characterising the Sassanian stamp, then commonly used in Persia, a country which, by the bye, was the source of so many of the ideas expressed in these figures and inscriptions. The choice Indian Sards, Nicoli, and Amethysts which embellished earlier periods, are replaced by coarser materials, the native productions of the countries which had engendered the new creed, the Jasper of Egypt dark green, or sometimes mottled with yellow and red, the Plasma, usually of bad quality, passing from a dirty olive-green into common Calcedony, and quite as abundantly the fibrous Hæmatite more or less magnetic. Indeed the opaque Jasper and the Loadstone, those special materials for signets at the fountains of the Magic Art, Egypt and Assyria, had, from time immomorial, engrossed the reputation of the most fitting vehicles for talismanic figures. The former was Pliny�s Molochites, �opaque, and of the colour of a mallow leaf, of innate power as an amulet to protect children;� its black variety was his Antipathes, �recommended by the Magi as a sure defence against witch-craft of every kind;� whilst the Hæmatite is the Persian Kamhahen, probably the true etymology of cameo, a word that came into Europe in the ages when every engraved stone passsed for a talisman.

So constant is this rule of unmitigated barbarism that Gnostic types when found well executed and in fine stones, as sometimes is the case, will on examination always prove to emanate fmm the Cinquecento school, a period when anything pertaining to Astrology or the Kabala was reproduced in vast abundance under the impulse of the revived spirit of mystic speculation. To this and the following century, must be referred the authorship of those large jaspers, not unfrequent in Collections, presenting the terminal figure of Osiris, the field occupied with astrological cyphers and modern Hebrew letters. Of these imitations, betraying themselves by their own excel-lence, the most conspicuous was a large Amethyst, obtained by me at Florence, engraved with an erect figure of the hawk-headed Phre, Priapean, holding the Cynocephalus upon his hand, and standing on the coiled serpent, an intaglio in the

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best Roman manner, that no era of Gnosticism had been capable of producing.*

Antique pastes with subjects do not exist, and for a very sufficient reason. The material of a talisman being quite as essential to its virtue as the sigil engraved upon it; the mystery whereof the profound Camillo di Leonardo shall hereafter declare in his own words. Again, the genuine stones were in them-selves so cheap, and the work upon them produced so expedi-tiously and with so little care, as to leave small temptation for counterfeiting them in a baser substance. The only exception that has come under my notice to the inferior quality of the stones employed by the Gnostic engravers is the singular Garnet tablet of the Hertz Cabinet, of which a description will be given in its proper place, when we come to treat of inscrip-tions.

The Lettering of the legends� upon these talismans has a peculiarity of execution that of itself serves to identify almost every stone belonging to the Gnostic series. The letters all all formed by straight lines, the , , and , being quite square, either from the rudeness of the instrument employed to cut them, or because want of skill prevented the engraver from attempting curvilinear characters, to do which neatly requires the utmost dexterity and long practice, being in fact the most difficult taskthat can be demanded from the wheel. For it was with this newly-invented instrument, as the equality of their lines demonstrates, that those ill-shaped characters were faintly

* I had long suspected that the Cinquecento period produced much

� Stiechel explains the inscrip-tion upon the shield borne by an Abrasax figure, written thus,Gnostic work in the ruder style, and

at length have obtained proof de-monstrative of the truth of this suspicion. Amongst a large lot of coarsely-cut Gnostic japsers of very recent work, my attention was caught by one (an inscrition of several lines) cut upon a tablet of that streaky agaet paste so popular at that period, but quite unknown to the ancients. The piece had been highly polished and then engraved with the wheel: the design probably copied from a genuine stone.

as no more than the customary form in that position, the Name Iao with the Sign of the Cross thrice repeated (to make up the mystic number, Seven). He quotes in support of this acute explanation a gem published by Matter, bearing , ex-pressing the sound of the Hebrew Peni zets ripa = �His face�this�healed.�

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traced upon the stone. In all likelihood the same artists were the Alexandrian glass-workers, famed long before for their engraved vases, Martial�s �tepide toreumata Nili,� for Pliny uses the significant expression, �vitrum, aliud torno teritur, aliud argenti more caelatur,� �some glass vessels are cut out by means of the drill, others carved in relief in the same manner as silver plate.� The in these inscriptions is invariably formed by drawing a short line across the diagonal of a , so that in rude work, it cannot be distinguished from the latter character.

These inscriptions are often found superadded upon the backs of gems of much earlier date, evidently for the purpose of converting them into talismans. Of such conversions the most remarkabIe known to me are, a fine cameo (Marlborough Cabinet) a bust of Commodus; on the reverse of which has been rudely cut the Abraxas-god surrounded by a legend, unintelligible though sounding like Greek words.

Another cameo (Royal Cabinet) with the helmeted heads regardant of Constantine�s two elder sons, has received the very unorthodox addition of Anubis, also surrounded by a long legend in huge characters, so barbarous as to defy transcription. A third (Devonshire Parure, No. 79), a fine heaad of Hercules, lapiz lazuli, has received the Gnostic baptism by the addition on the back of a scarabeus with expanded wings (recognised emblem of the Creator), and the word of power . The extremely debased style of all such additions plainly indicates a period long posterior to that of the originals; whilst the position the occupy, necessarily concealed when in use, proves that the whole object of such improvements was the supernatural protection of the wearer.

The finest example of Gnostic conversion is an onyx cameo (Vienna Cabinet), representing some young Cæsar under the form of Jupiter Axur, standing in front face with the thunder-bolt in his left hand, his right resting on the sceptre, the ægis hangs down his back for paludamentum, at his foot the eagle on one side a trophy with seated captive, hands tied behind; all in a good style in low relief. The talisman-maker has cut a

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line of square characters, resembling Palmyrene, down each leg from hip to foot, a nimbus of the same round his head, others on the field: and, to make all sure, has covered the back of the gem with 16 lines in the same abstruse lettering. It is care-fully figured in Arneth�s �Cameen des K. K. Cabinettes,� (Pl. xviii. 2), who suggests Julian for its subject, without con-sidering that the �Philosopher� wore a long beard during the period when such a representation of him as this was permissible. Besides, for the two centuries before Julian�s times, Sarapis was the only type under which the reigning emperor was allowed to be complimented, the old Latin �Jovis Axur� having grown obsolete. The hero of this apotheosis is much more probably Titus, or even his brother. The cameo is of respectable dimen-sions, being 2¾ inches high by 2½ wide.

As regards the history of Glyptics these inscribed gems have a value of their own, as fixing the date when the wheel came generally into use in the engraver�s atelier; for the minute and elegant lettering of earlier times will be found, when examined with the microscope, to have been incised in the gem with the diamond point, whence its perfect regularity and freedom.

Of these Gnostic inscriptions in general, Raspe (Catalogue of Tassie�s Pastes, p. 38) has given accurate transcripts, from an immense collection belonging to every shape and period of Gnosticism. Chabouillet has more recently done the same for the very large series in the French Cabinet, in his valuable �Catalogue des Camées de. la. Bib. Imp.� p. 282. In the �Gorlæ Dactyliotheca,� (3rd ed. 1695), Nos. 326-480 are entirely Gnostic and astrological designs, and include the greater part of those first published by Chiflet in his �Macarii Abraxas-Proteus,� ed. 1610, whose plates were re-engraved for the purpose on a reduced scale, but with large additions, apparently made by the learned editor of the work, Gronovius. But the most extensive series of actual representations of the whole class are the plates to the Section �Les Abraxas� of Mont-faucon�s grand work �L�Antiquité expliquée.� Many of his examples were drawn from the fine Cabinet of gems belonging to the Library of St. Geneviève, besides others, and very

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interesting specimens, from a previous work by Capello.* Though roughly engraved, they seem to have been copied with laudable attention to accuracy.

* Who professes to copy originals

in the ancient Cassel Cabinet; al-though many of his types are so un-paralleled in modern collections that Matter suspects them mere creations of his own fancy. But examples of

some of the strangest amongst them have lately come under my own notice, apparently mediæval Arabic talismans, which Capello, very pardonably, mistook for remains of the ancient Gnostics.

FIG. 12.

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LEGENDS AND FORMULÆ.

Foremost in the rank of Words of Power stands the �Mystery of the Seven Vowels,� so important as to demand a separate section for its discussion with befitting reverence. Though inferior to these, great no doubt was the virtue of those interminable strings of letters that fill both faces of many a Gnostic stone�later refinements upon the celebrated 'Ef�sia

Gr£mmata, as Clemens aptly remarks. Amongst these inter-minable formulæ lurk, no doubt, those potent spells composed by Solmon himself; by repeating which and at the same time applying to the sufferer�s nose his ring (under whose gem was placed the herb prescribed by the same oracle of wisdom) the Jew Eleazar drew out through their nostrils the devils possess-ing many people, in the presence of Vespesian, his tribunes and chief officers. The sapient Josephus adds, that to make sure of the exit of the diabolical occupant, the exorcist commanded him to overturn in his flight a basin of water placed at a considerable distance, which was forthwith done, to the consternation and conviction of all the heathen spectators. The Ephesian Spell, the mystic words graven on the zone of the Great Diana, were commonly used by the Magi of Plutarch�s times for the same purpose.

And there can be no doubt that such invocations were often efficacious. Demoniacal possession was nothing more than epilepsy (its very name, signifying possession, being derived from that same belief); for Galen, after rationally discussing the natural causes of the malady, remarks that the vulgar universally attributed it to the agency of devils. Now our experience of Mesmerism (so far as there is any reality in that pet science of charlatans) clearly shows what inexplicable effects can be produced upon persons labouring under nervous derange-ment by words of command authoritatively pronounced. How much greater the effect of those words in old times, when uttered in an unknown tongue by a person of imposing presence,

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and over patients already filled with the belief of his power to relieve them! Hence the Casting-out of devils became the grand staple of their trade with all the Thaumaturgists, both old and new, of the ages with which we are dealing. That the cure should be permament was a thing perfectly immaterial, it sufficed the exorcist�s purpose if the manifestation of his power should be sucessful for the moment; to the edification of the awestruck crowd of believers, and to the confusion of the few Rationalistic doubters amongst the crowd.

Such spells gave power likewise over demons ranging about unconfined in fleshly prison. Eucrates, in Lucian�s amusing �Philopseudos,� boasts that he is so accustomed to meet thousands of them roving about, that he has come not to mind them at all, more especially since �The Arabian has given me a ring made out of the nail from a cross, and taught me the spell composed of many Names.� The last remark is valuable for our purpose: it proves that the legends in an unknown tongue on our talismans are sometimes to be explained from the Arabic,* and also may consist of strings of titles of the one deity invoked. Virgil�s�

�Crines effusa sacerdos Ter centum tonet ore deos, Erebumque, Chaosque, Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianæ;� (Æn. iv. 510)�

distinctly refers to the same superstition, for Servius explains these �three hundred gods� in the spells of Dido�s Massylian sorceress, as not meaning so many different deities, but only so many epithets of Hecate herself; whose very name he, for the same reason, fancifully derives from the numeral �katon. The sane idea yet survives in the religious exercise of the devout Moslem, the mental repetition and reflection upon the Ninety-and-nine Arabic epithets of the One Almighty.

* In fact, the �unknown charac-ters� sometimes occurring in the field of the talismans are unmis-takeably Himyaritic letters, belong-ing to that primitive alphabet of Arabia. Osiander and Levi have published gems bearing intagla, of good execution, of Persian deities

(therefore long anterior to Gnostic times), and neatly engraved Him-yaritic legends. This character is perfectly vertical, handsome, and well defined in its differences; it is a modification of the Palmyrene, and the parent of the modern Ethiopic.

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The great object of those adjurations was to address the Deity by the names under which he was known to all the nations of Earth; in this way making sure of addressing him by the appellation wherein he most delighted. This is the fundamental principle of, and sufficient explanation of, the entire class of these talismanic legends; and of their syncretism. No. 10 of the �Magic Papyrus� affords a most valuable illustration. �I call upon thee that didst create the Earth, and bones, and all flesh, and all spirit, that didst establish the Sea, and that shakest the Heavens, that didst divide tha Light from the Darkness; Thou, the Great, Directing Mind, that disposest all things, Eye of the world! Genius of genii (da�mown daimon�wn), God of gods, the Lord of spirits, , hearken unto my voice! I call upon Thee, the Master of the gods, O loud thundering Zeus, O sovereign Zeus, Adonai! Lord ! I am he that calleth upon thee in the Syrian tongue, the great God Zaalahr If fon; and do not thou disregard my voice in the Hebrew language, Ablanaqanalba Abrasilwa. For I am silqwcwouc lailam blasalwq Iaw Iaw nebouq sabioqar bwq arbaq

Iaw Iawq sabawq pagourh pagourh barouc Adwnai Elwai iabraam

barbaranw nau sif. O lofty-minded, ever-living Crown of the world; containing all, Siephsakti eth biou = sfh = nousi =

siequ = cqeqwnhrugc WHAHHWAI A WHIAW asial saraphalsw

eqmourhsini sem lau lou lourigc. (This spell) looses fetters, causes blindness (i.e. makes one invisible), procures dreams, gives favour, for whatever purpose thou wishest.�

One circumstance, very unaccountable, connected with these Inscriptions is wherefore the Pehlevi character, the national writing of the Magi in those times, should never be used in formulæ so often embodying the doctrines of that profession. Neither are any complete legends to be found written in Punic, although that oharacter with the last mentioned was at the time universally employed, in various modifications, all over Asia and Africa. In the latter country Punic was not super-seded by Latin until a very late period of the Empire, for in the second century Apuleius (�Apology�) wishing to prove the neglect of his stepson�s education by the boy�s uncle who had taken charge of him (the family belonged to the large city Madaura in

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Numidia), declares that though arrived at the age of sixteen he could speak nothing but Punic and the little Greek he had picked up from his mother, �praeter Punice, at siquid adhuc a matre Græcissat.� And some years later, the emperor Severus, a descendant of Hannibal�s, had to blush for his sister when she came from his native place Leptis to Court, �vix Latine loquens.� It is true the characters which are often scattered over the field of these gems have much the look of Punic; others again of Palmyrene Syriac; whilst some are obviously the same with the strange Nubian characters to be seen in abundance graven on the rocks at Silsilis, upon the uppe Nile. As for the square (modern) Hebrew, all works presenting them are mere fabrications of the astrologers and Rosicrucians of the 16th and 17th centuries. Hieroglpyhical writing, though naturally to be looked for in the manufacture of Alexandria, hardly occurs at all; it is probably that even its modification the Demotic had long before been superseded (in that capital at least) by the Greek alphabet. The only exception known to me is the agate published by Caylus (�Rec. d�Ant.� vii. pl. 8), presenting the common four-winged Priapic genius in the sacred boat, the reverse bearing a long vertical lino of neatly cut genuine hieroglyphics. The Arabic �Kamar� Moon, some-times found in these formulæ, illustrates Pliny�s remark, that the Magi ordered the Name of the Sun or Moon to be engraved on emeralds or amethysts, in order to convert them into amulets against witchcraft, and giving success at Court. An emerald (Prain) of very bad quality, however, inscribed

. may represent the very kind of amulet alluded to. But that Alexandria was the grand fabrique of talismans is equally apparent to the mineralogist from the materials, as to the archæologist from the lettering employed in their construction. Nevertheless it still remains unexplained why the Magi should not have written their own spells in the character than solely current in the vast dominions of the Sassanian kings.

The language of these inscriptions is never Latin, rarely Greek, frequently Syriac, but most commonly corrupt Hebrew. For this choice the sufficient reason is given by Iamblichus in a

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letter to Porphyrius, where he expressly states that, �The gods are well pleased with prayers addressed unto them in the Egyptian or Assyrian tongue, as being ancient and cognate languages to their own, and moreover those in which prayer was first made unto them; and therefore they have stamped as sacred the entire speech of those holy nations.� It is a singular coincidence that Justinus Kerner, in his extraordinary work, �Die Seherin von Prevorst� (in reading which one continually fluctuates between the conviction of its being an impudent fiction, and the uncomfortable suspicion that it may be a revelation of the pro-foundest truth), assigns a similar reason for the writing used by the visistant from the spirit-world so greatly resembling Arabic, �because that had the best claim to be considered the primitive language of mankind.� This �Seer� was a peasant girl, worn out by long sickness to that degree as to belong more to the next world than to this. Consequently she had become sensible of the presence of spiritual visitors, and acted as a medium of com-munication between them and those in the flesh. Kerner, a physician, took her into his own house the better to observe these singular phenomena, and kept a regular diary of her health, and of her disclosures during several months until her death, with a minuteness of which only a German is capable. He writes evidently in all good faith, and, amidst heaps of nonsense, puts down some startling occurences beyond the flights of forgery and confirmed by one�s own experiences.

But as concerns the �Language of the other world,� in every country �Omne ignotum pro magnifico� has ever been the maxim of priestcraft, the soundness of which has been demon-strated by the experience of all time. More particularly does this apply to forms of prayer. Thus Orpheus:

� Then whilst the cauldron bubbles o�er the flame, Address each godhead by his mystic name; Full well th� immortals all are pleased to hear Their mystic names rise in the muttered prayer.�

Of such mystic invocations it will be advisable to adduce examples from writers contemporary with their use, before proceeding to the consideration of actual remains of similar nature. Of the numerous specimens cited, the following are the

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most noteworthy. The �Pistis-Sophia� (§ 358) makes the Saviour �standing upon the shore of the sea, the ocean, call upon God with this prayer, sayng, Hear me, O Father, thou Father of all fatherships, Infinite Light, Aehiouw Iaw Awi wia yinwqer qerinwy

nwyiqer zagnourh pagourh meqmomawq neyiomawq maracacqa qwbarra-

baq qarnacacan rorokqora Ieou Sabawq.� And again (§ 375) in this valuable description of the Gnostic Sacrament: �Then said Jesus, bring me fire and vine-branches. And they brought them unto him, and he, placing upon them an offer- ing, set two vessels of wine, the one on the right, the other on the left of the offering. He set before them the offering; he put also a cup of water before the vessel of wine which was on the right hand, and he set a cut of wine before the vessel of wine that was on the left; and he set loaves of bread, according to the number of his disciples in the middle between the cups. He set likewise a cup of water behind the loaves. And Jesus, standing before the offering, made all the disciples to stand behind him, being all clothed in linen garments, having all of them in their hands the number* of the Name of the Father of the Treasury of Light. And he cried aloud, saying, Hear me, O Father, Father of all fatherships, Boundless Light, Iaw Ionw Iaw

awi wia yinwqer qerinoy nwyiqer nefqomaracqa ihanamenaman amonhi

of heaven! Israi amhn amhn soubai bai appaah amhn amhn derra

arai apaoi amhn amhn sasarsartou amhn amhn kukiamhn mai amhn

amhn iai iai touap amhn amhn mainmari marih marei amhn amhn amhn.� Again Irenæus copies out a formula �couched in Hebrew words, to inspire greater awe into the Gallic neophyte (at Lugdunum),� as used by certain Gnostics there in administering baptism: bassima camossh ba aianoma matadia rouada kousta babafor kola-

cqai, �I invoke Thee, Supreme over every virtue, the Light of the Father by name, the good Spirit, the Life, because thou hast reigned in the body.� Another of their formulæ way�Messia ou

fareg namemyaimen caldaian mosemedia akfranai yaoua Ihsou Nazaria. �I do not separate the Spirit, the Head, and the Supercelestial

* Meaning, perhaps, having their fingers arranged so as to express this number: for Pliny mentions a very old statue of Janus displaying the

fingers in such manner to to indicate his own numeral, that of the days in the year.

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Virtue, the Merciful One. May I prosper in thy name, O saviour of Truth.�

But as regards the expression of divine mysteries by means of letters of the alphabet, Marcus stands pre-eminently first amongst the Gnostics, as the following extracts from his �Revelation� will conclusively attest. �The supreme Tetrad came down unto me from that region which cannot be seen nor named, in a female form because the world would have been unable to bear their appearing in a male figure and revealed to me the generation of the universe, untold before either to gods or men. When first the Father, the Inconceivable, Beingless,* sexless, began to be in labour he desired that his Ineffable should be born, and his invisible should be clothed with form. He therefore opened his mouth and uttered the Word like unto himself. This word standing before him showed that he was Manifesting himself as the form or type of the Invisible One. Now the uttering of the Name came to pass in this wise. He (the Supreme) spake the first word of his name, the which is a syllable of four letters. He then added the second sylIable, also of four letters. Then the third, com-posed of ten letters. Finally the fourth, made up of twelve letters. Thus the utterance of the whole name consists of thirty letters, and of four syllables. Each letter has a form-pronunciation and writing of its own, but neither under- stands nor beholds that of the whole Name; nay, not even the power of the letter standing next to itself. Now these sounds united make up the Beingless unbegotten Æon, and these are the Angels that always behold the face of the Father. Thus the Father knowing himself to be incomprehensible give unto each of the letters, called Æons, its own proper sound, inas-

* The Kabbalistic �En-Soph.� In this boundlessness, or as the En-Soph, God cannot be comprehended by the intellect, nor described by words, for there is nothing that can grasp or define Him to us; and as such He is in a certain sense non-existent, because as far as our minds are con-cerned that which is perfectly incom-prehensible does not exist. To make

this existence perceptible, and to render himself comprehensible, the En-Soph had to become active and creative. But the En-Soph cannot be the direct Creator, for he has neither will, intention, desire, thought, language, nor action, as these properly imply limit, and belong to finite beings, whereas the En-Soph is Boundless.�

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much as none of them singly is competent to utter the entire Name.�*

The substance of the revelation brought down to Marcus by Truth is to be found in the Kabbala, which makes the mystic names of God to consist of four, twelve, forty-two and seventy-two letters respectively. The Kabbalists go so far as to assert that the forty-two victims offered by Balaam in order to obtain a favourable response, were consecrated to one of these great names. If indeed Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, the magic virtues of numerals would have formed an essential part of his learning, as we see from the doctrine of Pythagoras, confessedly derived from Egypt. It looks very much like as if the framers of the genealogy of Jesus had the same object in view, when they forced the generations to the required number by omitting three of the kings in the second division, being able to deal with the third in whatever manner they pleased. On counting the number of the vowels that evidently have some deep purpose in occuring without consonants on so many talismans of the age of Marcus, we should, I expect, often find it tally with that of one or the other of these Holy Names.�

A subsequent revelation of the same Tetrad to Marcus, serves to account for the frequent appearance of the naked woman, the Venus Anadyomene of earlier times, upon Gnostic monuments. �After having declared these things, the Tetrad added: I will shew unto thee Truth, whom I have brought

* This is a regular Talmudic notion as the Rabbins propound. �At first the Name of twelve letters was communicated to every one; but when the profane multiplied it was only communicated to the most pious of the priests, and these pre-eminently pious priests absorbed it from their fellow-priests in the chant. It is recorded that Rabbi Tarphon said: I once went up the orchestra in the Temple after my maternal uncle, and bending forward my ear to a priest I heard how he absorbed it from his fellow-priests in the chant. R. Jehudah said in the time of Rab

the divine name of forty-two lettters is only communicated to such as are pious, not easily provoked, not given to drinking, and are not self-opinion-ated. He who knows that name and preserves it in purity, is beloved above, cherished below, respected by every creature, and is new to both worlds.��(Babylon. Mid. 71 a.).

� This explains the Segga barfar-

aggej, �those who stand before the Mount� so commonly following angelic names upon our talismans; where also the long strings of letters may be designed to express their Æon unbegotten.

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down from the celestial mansions that thou shouldst behold her naked, acknowledge her beauty, hear her speaking, and be astonished at her wisdom. Look up therefore at here head A and W, at her neck B and Y, at her shoulders with her hands G and C, at her breasts D and R, at her chest E and U, at her back Z and T, at her belly H and S, at her thighs Q and R, at her knees I and P, at her legs K and O, at her ankles L and X, at her feet M and N. This is the body of Truth, this is the form of the letters, this is the character of the writing. Whereupon Truth looked upon me (Marcus) and opened her mouth, and uttered a word, and that word became a Name, a name which we know and speak�Christ Jesus: and having named him she held her peace.�*

This �figure of Truth� is made up, it will be perceived, by taking successive pairs of letters from each extremity of the alphabet; perhaps, thereby constituting them male and female, and thus making them types of so many Æons. All this suggests a rational question, whether the primary appli- cation of the name �Logos� to the Divine Emanation, was not at first a mere interpretation of the Rabbinical Synonym �Name, or Word,� the respectful substitute for the ineffable Name Jehovah, the Shem hak Kodesh; and that later, the secondary meaning of Logos, �Reason� suggested to the Platonising Jews of Alexandria its analogy to their own Sophia-Achamoth, the first-born of the Supreme Cause. And finally, the composition of this Holy Name, extending to thirty letters, illustrates the purport of that interminable polysyllabic title which runs either in one unbroken circle, or sometimes in the outline of an erect serpent, around the margin of so many Gnostic gems, and circumscribes the mystic device engraved in the centre. In the latter arrangement of the inscription, one is tempted to recognise that �Good and Perfect Serpent� of the

* Similarly in the Kabbalistic dia-gram of the Sephiroth, the Crown is the head; Wisdom, the brain; In-telligence, the heart; Love, the right arm; Gentleness, the left arm: Beauty, the chest; Firmness, the right leg; Splendour, the left leg; Foundation, the genitals; Kingdom, or Shekinah,

the union of the whole body. The Venus Anadyomene so often seen on our talismans was probably adopted by the Gnostics in this spiritualised sense; and thereby still continues to personify the virtue, Truth.

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Naaseni�that Messias whose visible type in the heavens their eyes, sharpened by faith, discovered and adored in the Constel-lation Draco.

To come now to the actual remains of Gnostic manufacture, which preseve to us formulæ of the nature just considered, the most important, to judge from its frequent occurrence, and the evident care bestowed upon its engraving, is the one here transcribed. My copy is taken from an example formerly in the State collection, probably the finest talisman known. It is a thick plaque, somewhat heart-shaped, of dark garnet, 2¾ l½ inches in its greatest dimensions, bearing on the one side 14 lines, on the othar 11, neatly cut in the Greek character in the third century but making no distinction between the A and the L.

Obverse

Reverse

Amongst the titles on the obverse several familiar names may be detected, such as Alon, Shemesh Eilam, Abrasax. The long style filling the fourth line is clearly the correct spelling of the abbreviated Agrammaeamereg addressed in another part of the �Prayers of the Saviour,� as the first of the �Invisible Gods.� The next line Shemgensalpharanges, �they who stand before the mount of Paradise,� can be no other than the Æons just described by Marcus as the �Angels who always behold the Father�s face�: whilst in this Jewish hierarchy of heaven the old god of Egypt, Anubis, oddly intrudes himself under his Coptic title of Anbo.

* Probably meant ¢lezet� me �Defend me!��of exactly similar sound in the spoken language.

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Both inscriptions agree literally with those upon the large oval calcedony figured by Chiflet (fig. 69) except the addition in the latter of a few words inclosed within a coiled serpent placed at the top of the obverse. Out of these inscriptions his friend Wendelin, by taking the language as good Greek, had contrived to elicit a most orthodox invocation to the Trinity, which however was evidently far from satisfactory to the sceptical and more sagacious Canon. Amongst the Townley gems is a large sard, agreeing in all except a few letters with Chiflet�s specimen�convincing attestation to the supposed virtue of the formula. For the purpose of comparison I insert another, lately discovered, engraved on a much more minute scale than any of the preceding (Whelan�s copy).

Dark red agate, 1 87 in.: sent me by Mr. Whelan, Nov. 25, 1881.

Doubtless such immense and overcharged pieces of mystery served in their time the purpose of pocket prayer books, out of which the owner recited the due invocations at the sacred rites. To some such manual of devotion, the pseudo-Orpheus possibly alludes by

� Pray, with the flowered Petraces in thy hand, When hecatombs before the altar stand.�

The Orientalist desirious of exercising his ingenuity upon the decyphering of these, for the most part unexplained monu-ments will find an immense collection of them in Raspe (Nos. 433-633) copied with scrupulous accuracy. The reason he there gives for the attention he has paid to a class previously so

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neglected is a very sound one. �All these sects have evidently borrowed their symbols, and probably also their respective explanations, from the iconology and mysteries of the Egyptians and other nations of the East. If as regards the meaning of hieroglyphics and symbols they had no better information, the Gnostics of Egypt and Syria had at least national tradition to depend upon�a point assuredly of some weight. If therefore the more recent sects of Gnostics with their sym-bolical learning have established new opinions and fresh modifi-cations of religion upon the basis of the old, we are not there-fore to conclude that they knew nothing about, and wantonly gave a new meaning to, the symbols which they thus mis-applied. This is the only rational point of view in which these amulets and engravings ought to be studied.

Raspe�s collection I shall now proceed to supplement by copies of several unpublished examples�the most interesting that have came under my notice in a long course of study, and such as serve best to illustrate the theories proposed in the foregoing pages. And to show the curious and puzzling nature of the whole class, they often present the critical examiner with signs and siglæ, now supposed the exclusive property of national re1igions, the most diverse from one another, as they were remote from the rccognised metropolis of Gnosticism, Inter-mingled with the regular Greek characters appear strange signs analogous in form, often identical with, the Caste-marks of the Hindoos, and which in their turn became the parents of those used by the mediæval alchemists and Rosicrucians, and (during the same ages) of the true professors of Masonry. The consideration of these Sigla, of which I have collected a large series belonging to all ages and countries, has proved sufficiently fruitful to supply materials for a separate and important sub-division of this Treatise. One example, described under �talis-mans and amulets,� presents unmistakable evidence of the use of Runes in the Alexandrine studio, whilst another, shortly to be noticed, demonstrates that the Gnosis may dispute with Hibernia her supposed perciliar invention of the mysterious Oghams.

A tablet of aquamarine (?) communicated to me by the

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Rev. Greville Chester, bears the inscription in well-formed characters�

Obverse

Reverse

Extremity.

A string of titles ending with �Lord of hosts! defend me.�

Sapphirine calcedony, the size of a pigeon�s egg.�(Forman Collection.)

The concluding word fÚlaxon, �Do thou protect,� clearly evinces that this elegantly carved invocation was ad- dresssed to some deity rejoicing in many titles, and styled �propitious� by its opening �l�w.

A very thick stone of sapphirine calcedony. This is purely Jewish, perhaps the ware of some �Magna sacerdos arboris� sold to the Roman ladies, for it puts the buyer under the

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protection of the Archangels �Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, who stand before the Mount of Paradise of Jehovah.�

A remarkable exemplifioation of the mixutre of two opposing creeds is found in the , �Light of lights,� accompanying the figure of a globoes vase with bands hanging from the neck. This is evidently �the small golden vessel shaped like a cow�s udder, containing the libations of milk� mentioned by Apuleius as carried in the Isiac prooession by the same official who bore aloft the hand of Justice. The gridiron-like object often laid upon it, is the regular Egyptian door-key, made of wood. In one example figured by Matter (PI. vi. 6), the key is shown of the regular Roman form in the same position, which places the meaning of the more usual figure entirely out of doubt. This shows the reason for kleidoàcoj, �the keybearer,� being a priestly title.

Other types purely Egyptian, offer some curious improve-ments upon the old �qualia demens Ægyptus portenta colat.� For example one (Praun) exhibits Anubis, but now equipped with two heads and four hands holding torches and daggers; styled on the reverse . In another (Nelthropp) the Cat-headed goddess, Taf-Neith stands lotus-crowned, and is addressed as *

. Again Anubis with the superadded heads of Pan (Mendes) and a cock (Phre) with arms outstretched in the form of a cross; his body supported upon the legs of an ibis, has over the heads respectively written the initials , , . On the reserve

. But the most curious composition of this nature known to me is presented by a large elliptical mottled jasper, measuring l½ ¾ inch, very boldly cut, and better drawn than usual�apparently a Solar talisman (Mr. Topham, Rome). The obverse shows a gryllas in the outline of a cock having the heaad of Pan, scorpions for tail-feathers, and the whip of Sol stuck in his rump to complete that appendage, standing upon a serpent�overhead are the sun-star and crescent, on his back rests a tailed globe (a comet?) in front , in the field below the astral siglæ. On the reverse, (73?) over

* Chaldee, �The Star, the Star.�

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the Agathoæmon serpent uncoiled, and crawling, a star and . Below the serpent, , the letters inverted, then another line . Below this again the triple on the bar that always accompanies the Agathodæmon,

, reading thus in the impression. In the last word �the Great Ieou��special title of the Supreme Being in the Pistis-Sophia may easily be detected; whilst the triple-headed deity previously described, very probably expresses the conception of those might Tridun£meij qeo�, who play so important a part in the theology of the same book of wonder.

The following examples are the most genuine offspring of the Kabbala, consisting of letters alone, uncontaminated by the presence of the idols of Misraim. First for beauty of material and engraving stands a large citrine (occidental topaz) formerly in the Praun cabinet, now in the Gnostic Series, British Museum.

On one side is an oval enolosing (porhaps denoting the Ogdoad and Decad, the base of Marcus� scheme; see Hep. vi. 52); an eye, emblem of Osiris, a square bisected, and , which last letter may also numerically represent the Tetrad of the same Doctor.

The other face of the gem presents,

The next is a legend which, with trivial variations, frequently

occurs. Caylus (VI. Pl. 11) gives it very rudely added, upon the reverse of a female portrait. The present copy is from a large calcedony, somewhat coarsely executed, having on its other face the triple and bar (Praun)�

The Hebrew Patriarch figures in this legend, and in many more of the same kind, as the divinely inspired founder of a

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Gnosis, a reputation he enjoted even among the heathen, who put him in the same category with Orphus, first institutor of Mysteries. �Sev. Alexander in larario suo�omnes sanctiores in quibus Apollonium, et (quantum scriptor horum temporum dicit) Christum, Abraham, et Orpheum, et ejusmodi cæteros habebat.� (Lampridius 29.)

To the same family belongs a yellow jasper (Maskelyne) dis-playing a perforated quatrefoil over the name , then the mystic vowels , then (sic) and on reverse

. The quatrefoil is originally the symbol of Sitala, the Tenth Trithakoor, or deified Jaina saint; whence it found its way along with the other Buddhistic machinery, into Mediæval symbolism, in which it resembles an angel.*

Very remarkable on account of its adjuncts, is a green jasper (Praun) bearing a long neatly-cut legend, the central portion of which is circumscribed by two limes, cut by short strokes at different angles, exactly after the fashion of the Irish Oghams. In the latter, as is well known, all the letters of the Roman alphabet are represented by the different positions of very short lines in relation to one continuous line in the middle; and it is impossible to imagine any other purpose subserved by the similar contrivance on our talismans. The Ogham is supposed to be an invention of the first missionaries to Ireland, it was used as late as the Civil War by Lord Glamorgan in his correspond-ence with Charles I. It is, however, very possible that the monks carried this simple stenography from rome to their Celtic mission.�

* One of the heaviest charges against the mediæval Manichæans was the adoration of an Octagon, as the figure of God.

� The talisman-makers loved to press into their service all the strange

characters that came to their know-ledge. Even the Runic of the furthest north added its virtue to the Praun hepatic amulet to be fully noticed in its proper section.

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A minute figure of Abraxas, green jasper (Praun) takes a new title �Abrachars� in the invocation

. Thoth�s caduceus within a wreath is accompanied by the

legend on the reverse on a brown calcedony in my collection.

Of all Agathodæmon talismans, no more elegant specimen has come to my knowledge than a large emerald-like plasma (Bosanquet) displaying the serpent �the Good and Perfect One� erect above his invariable concomitant sigils, and whom the reverse propitiates by the beautifully cut address

. True green jade, very convex on back (Rev. S. S. Lewis.) In the field, each side of serpent MN

V . � . �With me, with me!� in pure Chaldee. Reverse in two lines, round the usual symbol.

All cut with unusual precision and neatness of work. The legend has many words in common with Mr. Bosanquet�s plasma.

Jerome�s �Pater Bromius� of the Mithraic Cave has pro- bably some share in the title �Sabbaoth,� so often coupled with �Adonai,� for Bacchus rejoiced in the epithet �Sabazius,� derived from the shout �Sabbaoi� raised by the celebrants of his Orgies�a word identical with the Hebrew �Sabi� glory! Certain sectaries of our own day who bellow out the same word at their �Revivals,� are little aware what an ancient and congenial authority they have for their vociferation.

�Adonai,� our Lord, is converted by the Greek into Adoneus, a synonym for Pluto, and Orpheus, as already quoted, points out the identity of Bacchus, Pluto, and Sol. This is the founda-tionn for the ancient exposition of the Syrian rite, the Mourning for Adonis (�The women weeping for Thammuz�) as really applying to the sun�s loss of power at the winter quarter. Adoneus or Aïdoneus, becoming interpreted according to Greek etymology, was supposed to signify him �that walketh unseen,� whence spring the �helmet of Adoneus,� the rendered the

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wearer invisible; and Catullus�s application of the title to the intrigue-loving Cæsar.

� Perambulabit omnium cubilia Ut albulas columbas aut Adoneus.�

The same Adonis had the name �Sal-Anbo� (which often occurs in Gnostic legends) as appears from the statement in Lampridius, �that Heliogabalus exhibited Salanbo with all the lamentation and tossing of head proper to the Syrian ceremony,� �whereby he gave the omen of his own impending fate.

The Delphio has already been noticed�but its importance demands further particulars of its history, which have been preserved by Plutarch in his curious treatise upon the subject. The Greeks with their usual fondness for explaining all mysteries rationistically, considered the letter as the simple numeral, Five, set up in the Temple to denote the original and proper number of the far-famed �Wise Men;� but which in later times had been raised to seven, by the addition of two more who had small claims to the honour. The legend went that these Five Wise Men, to commemorate the accidental meeting of them all in Delphi at the same festival, had dedicated the numeral carved in wood, which, decaying through age, the Corinthians replaced by a facsimile in bronze; which last was finally transmuted by Livia Augusta into another of gold, as more consistent with the dignity of the god of the place, whose son her husband claimed to be, and whose received image he represented in his features.

Others, more profoundly, interpreted the letter as represent-ing by its proper sound in the Greek alphabet the declaration E�, �Thou art� as addressed to the Godhead�thus making it equivalent to the title Ð ðn, �the living God,� so frequently given to Jehovah.

But it is much more consistent with the simplicity of antique times, to understand the figure as merely standing for the number Five, a number sacred for itself, not for its reference to the fabled sages of a later period. The idea of its virtue may have come from an Indian source, where it is the cause of the five-headed shape assigned to Brahma. From India it would find its way to

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Delphi in company with the Gorgon-heads, themselves masks of Bhavana the Destroyer, which guarded the actual oracle�a singular connexion, noticed by Euripides in his �Ion.� But it should be remembered that the Hyperboreans, reputed founders of the Oracle, were placed between the Caspian and the frontiers of India. The Omphalos itself �shaded with garlands, and en-compassed with Gorgons� was no other than the Brahmanical Lingam, as its figure demonstrates, whether as repictured in the early vase paintings when embraced by Orestes seeking sanctuary there from the pursuing Eumenides, or with Apollo seated thereon, stamped on the money of the Seleucidae�direct descendants of the god. In form reduced to an obtuse cone, the emblem had nothing obscene in appearance, its hidden meaning being a matter of revelation to the initiated few. The same conically-shaped stone was the sole representative of Venus in her most ancient temples�Paphos for example. Again that earliest of all statues of Apollo, the Amyclæan, described by Pausanias, was a vertiable Hindoo Lat�a bronze column 50 cubits high, to which later art had added a head, hands holding bow and spear, and toes (¢kroi pÒdej). But his throne, in the middle of which the idol stood erect, was an after-thought of the best times of Grece, covered with elaborate figures and reliefs, the work of Bathyeles, or of Myron, with his scholars.

And in truth this very lunar-shaped E seems to belong to the same class of Indian importations, and to have been originally a mere Caste-mark�indeed, if placed horizontally , it becomes at once the badge of the sectaries of Vishnu. What strongly confirms this explanation is the fact, that this symbol had been consecrated at Delphi many centuries before that shape of the letter came into the Greek alphabet�a change only dating from the age of Antony and Cleopatra, upon whose medals, struck in Asia Minor, the lunar-shaped E is first observable.

In the earliest dawn of Grecian philosophy we find Pytha-goras* building his whole system upon the mystic properties of

* Who is constantly affirmed to have visited India, Apuleius stating of him, �Sed nec his artibus animi expletum mox Chaldæs, inde Brach-

manas, eorum ergo Brachmanum Gymnosophistas adiisse.��(�Flo-rida.�)

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Numbers, and declared by tradition to have been taught the science in Egypt; nay, more, Plato himself has penned in his Republic a certain section in the same line, worthy of any Alexandrian Kabbalist. In our own day, with the Sikhs to hold a �Punch� or council of Five, was the formal mode of delibera-ting upon all matters of State. And inasmuch as the most serious things have a ludicrous side, this sacred Numeral only preserves its reputation amongst ourselves from having given the name to the well-known beverage, by reason of the five ingredients that go to its concoction�perhaps too, because its brewing was the inevitable result of the coming together of the same number of Englishmen in the time when our language was enriched by so many loans from the Hindostanee.*

A remarkable feature in the theogony of Valentinus is curiously illustrated by a Praun Calcedony, elegantly engraved, and mounted in a gold frame by some later Oriental owner, who justly deemed the gem a talisman of uncommon power. �The Fahter at last sent forth a mighty Æon, called the Cross, and who contained within himself all the other thirty Æons. The same was likewise dominated Terminus, inasmuch as he served for Boundary between the Fulness (Pleroma) and the Deficiency (Hysteroma).� Our gem presents the Egyptian Tau, as a Deus Terminus, topped with a human head, and surrounded by a continuous legend composed of vowels interspersed with rare consonants; probably expressing the thirty Æons con-tained within the sigil�s self. On the base of the Terminus is the legend , often occuring on talismans. The same words are found at the feet of a cruciform trophy, above which is the Christian upon a stone in the French Cabinet (No. 2222) also followed by upon the back of a gem (silex) published in the �Göttingische Anzeiger,� Nos. 35 a, b, which clearly emanates from Mithraic notions, for it represents the usual lion-headed, serpent-girt man, a torch in one hand, in the other a sword, serpent, and crown of victory, soaring aloft from the back of a lion, under which lies a prostrate corpse.

* For example caste and dam. The latter is the probable source of the common English expression that em-phasizes the small value of a thing,

which ignorance softens into curse. Similarly used is rap, the smallest of the Swiss money.

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A very curious instance of the employment of Gnostic figures in the art of Medicine is offered by the stone which Matter has published (Pl. II., C. 4). The obverse displays the Agatho-dæmon serpent placed between Phre (Sol) and a female in the act of adoration. Overhead are the mystic Vowels; below the undershaped vase, already noticed, placed upon a low altar, the whole encompassed by a legend in some unknown tongue. But the other side explains in lucid Greek the object of the composirion.

, �Place the womb of such or such a one into its proper region, o, the circle of the sun.� Matter, in his explanation, has fallen into a ludicrous mistake, by interpreting mhtrÕn as mht�ra he converts the words into a prayer for the soul of the mother of a certain Dina! But the real translation shows that the gem was made for any purchaser, to be worn as a preservative against the �prolapsus uteri,� a female complaint very common in ancient times, owing to the abuse of the hot bath, so relaxing to the internal muscles, and also to the general employment of �aobrtiva,� whenever thought desirable. In fact the very definite expression of the object, , uterine, is found on other gems, and places the correctness of the attribution of the former one quite out of doubt.

The �circle of the sun� means the navel, which marks the natural position of the organ concerned, for the navel in the mircocosm was supposed to coincide with the sun in the universe. This idea produced the far-famed hallucination of the Byzantine anchorites, respecting the mystical Light of Tabor, which shone upon the devotee in virtue of long-continued fasting, and unintermitted fixing of the eyes upon the region of the navel, whence at length it streamed forth, as from a focus, the �true creation of an empty brain and an empty stomach.�*

* A neatly engraved ring-stone, hæmatite, lately communicated to me, has a line of several of the common siglae, followed by two more containing

, �Jehovah, Lion of God (pro-tect) Victorina!� When proper

names can be deciphered on these talismans they are always those of women. A Praun gem, similarly opening with a line of siglae and the names Iao and Gabriel, was made for a certain Sabinia Quinta.

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Another circumstance bearing upon this employment of the sigil is that Isis, the peculiar goddess of maternity, is often figured in Roman sculpture, holding up in her hand a conical object, pouch shaped, exhibiting a triangular orifice. This object some have taken for the Persia plum; much more probably does it represent the organ in question, the most natural and expressive symbol of that divinity�s peculiar function. In her mystic coffer were carried the distinctive marks of both sexes, the lingam and yoni of the Hindoos. Their Isis, Parvati, who in this character take the name of Deva �the goddess� pre-eminently, bears in her hand for distinctive badge the yoni, or bhaga, often a precious stone carved into that shape. Similarly her consort, Siva, carries the lingan or phallus. For example, the Nizam�s diamond, the largest stone of its kind known certainly to exist, exhibits evident traces of the native lapidary�s clumsy endeavours to reduce the native crystal to the proper shape for the hand of the great goddess. Ugly omen to happen under a female reign, this diamond was accidentally broken in two just before the outbreak of the Sepoy revolt.

Deva�s Mark, as born upon their foreheads by Parvati�s sectaries, is formed by three strokes, the two outside white or yellow, the centre always red. It is interpreted as represent- ing the womb, methra, of Bhavani (another of Parvati�s names) out of which proceeded all that exists. The close relationship between the Egyptian and Hindoo goddesses cannot fail to strike the observer; Isis carries the very same attributes with Parvati�the kid and cobras�upon the talisman�published by Caylus (IV., Pl. 16). But the Egyptian goddess having but one pair of hands, is forced to clasp in each the several attributes borne singly by her many-handed Indian prototype.

A singular union of two contrary deities in one body, is presented by a hematite (Praun), representing Anubis, who, besides his proper jackal�s head, is equipped with another, maned on the neck, and unmistakably that of an ass; as Typhon,* the evil one, was depicted; moreover, one of the feet,

* The ass was sacred to Typhon. Plutarch (De Isiide, 31) quotes an

Egyptian legend that this deity fled from the �Battle of the Gods� upon

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THE GNOSTICS AND THEIR REMAINS. 302

too, of the figure is clearly hoofed, so as to leave no doubt as to the ownership of the second head. The same discordance of characters is still futher set forth by that he bears in his hands, the two of Anubis holding up torches, the two of the malignant Typhon, swords. This odd combination probably expressed the same idea as did the Anubis seen by Apuleius, who exhibited at one time a face black as the night, at another golden as the day, in order to express his functions exercised both in heaven and in hell. The reverse bears an inscription containing the Coptic name of the god,

. ����������������

the back of an ass for over seven days� space without stopping, until he came into Judea, where he begat two sons, Hierosolymus and Palæs-

tinus. Sir G. Wilkinson has met (although but rarely) with the figure of an ass-headed deity, or demon, in Egyptian sculptures.

FIG. 13.